Auburn University's Boshell Diabetes Research Day to focus on diabetes and obesity Feb. 13

Auburn University will hold the eighth annual Boshell Diabetes Research Day on Friday, Feb. 13, at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. The event will bring together experts from around the United States to present current topics related to diabetes, a disease that affects nearly 30 million Americans, and the role of obesity in its development.

The Boshell Diabetes and Metabolic Disease Research Program is based at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine and includes more than 40 Auburn University researchers.

This year's Research Day will feature keynote speaker Dr. Steven Kliewer, the distinguished chair in Basic Cancer Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center; a plenary lecture from Dr. Sean Davies of the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine; and banquet speaker Jerry Mathers, who played Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver in the 1950's sitcom, "Leave It to Beaver." Mathers was diagnosed with diabetes in 1996, and is an advocate for diabetes research.

Other highlights from the conference include morning and afternoon oral presentations by experts and researchers.

"Cases of diabetes and obesity have reached epidemic proportions in the United States, and this conference allows investigators from Auburn and other universities the opportunity to get together and discuss significant ongoing research," said Dr. Robert L. Judd, chair of the Boshell program and associate professor of pharmacology at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Registration is open and can be completed online at www.auburndiabetes.com/researchday.html. Registration is free for Boshell members, and $100 for nonmembers. Students and postdoctoral fellows may attend at no cost. A limited number of rooms is available at The Hotel at Auburn University. Reservations can be made by calling (800) 228-2876 or (334) 821-8200 and asking for the Boshell Room Block.

Transportation from the Atlanta Airport is available through Express-85 Shuttle Service at www.express85.com or by calling (888) 238-7738 or (334) 887-8595. Payments must be made directly to Express-85.

For questions about the Research Day Conference, contact Dr. Judd at juddrob@auburn.edu.

The Boshell Diabetes and Metabolic Disease Research Program was established in 2001 through an endowment by the Birmingham-based Diabetes Trust Fund in honor of founder Dr. Buris R. Boshell. Dr. Boshell was a 1953 graduate of Harvard Medical School who joined the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center in 1959 and became the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism in 1963. During this time, he established the Diabetes Research and Education Hospital and the Boshell Diabetes and Endocrine Center in Birmingham.