FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10 February, 2004

contact: Rich Murphy, PNRI (206) 726-1200 rmurphy@pnri.org

The Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) in Seattle has received a grant of $50,000 from the Seattle Foundation for the development of a new Confocal Microscopy Cell Imaging Core Laboratory. The funds will be used toward the purchase of equipment essential to its research into the mechanisms of disease, particularly diabetes.

"This is an important supplement to PNRI's regular NIH funding," according to Dr. R. Paul Robertson, CEO and Scientific Director of the Institute. "We are fortunate to have the Seattle Foundation fostering and facilitating philanthropy in our community. PNRI is a grateful beneficiary of their important work. The new grant will help us maintain and grow the high quality of our diabetes and cancer research."

The new laboratory at PNRI will feature an Olympus confocal microscope, and it will employ state of the art digital imaging technology to study real-time protein and genetic interactions within cells. Such new technology will be especially helpful to those research programs focused on pancreatic beta cell physiology. The confocal instruments will allow for three-dimensional resolution and live-cell imaging, which will enable Institute researchers to analyze more closely the cell structures and signal pathways critical to type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Robertson points out that PNRI's diabetes research groups are unique in the region. "We have established expertise in beta-cell physiology and a strong team of researchers working to cure diabetes. Such a cure," he explains, "requires us to understand how beta-cell mass is regulated, how insulin secretion is controlled, and how beta-cell function is impaired."

The confocal microscope, its imaging software, and a perfusion chamber for live-cell imaging will be the only such lab in the region devoted especially to the work of an integrated diabetes research program. According to Dr. Peter Dempsey, the new laboratory's director, "this facility will permit us to accelerate and deepen our study of some of the key problems of beta cell development and function. Problems that must be solved if we want to prevent and cure diabetes."