Anette-Gabriele Ziegler Awarded Prestigious Rachmiel Levine Medal

The award was presented during the Rachmiel Levine-Arthur Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium, hosted at the City of Hope Research Center, USA. As part of the event, Prof. Ziegler delivered an award lecture titled "Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity and Implications for Prevention of Type 1 Diabetes", where she shared key insights from her research on autoimmune processes leading to type 1 diabetes and potential prevention strategies.

Prof. Ziegler is internationally renowned for her pioneering work in diabetes research, particularly in uncovering the early mechanisms of disease development and advancing preventive measures. This award marks a significant recognition of her leadership and dedication to improving the lives of those at risk for diabetes.
 

About the Rachmiel Levine Award for Excellence in Clinical Sciences and Mentoring

The Rachmiel Levine Award is given in memory of the Dr. Rachmiel Levine, the scientist responsible for clarifying the nature of insulin action, to honor and recognize outstanding clinical sciences and mentorship achievements in the field of diabetes and metabolism. The award has been given annually since 2015.

Levine was the executive medical director at City of Hope in Duarte, California, from 1971 to 1979. In 1984, City of Hope honored him with the title, deputy director for research emeritus. He retired from City of Hope in 1991.
 
Levine's research strengths were initially illustrated in his first published paper titled, "The Effects of Blood-Sugar Level on Glucose Utilization." With this research study, he introduced the theory that the greater the amount of glucose present in the blood, the greater the amount that is used by the body. In 1946, he published a book entitled, "Carbohydrate Metabolism." The publication of this book helped lay the base for future diabetes studies through its concise basic science summary. In 1949, he gained the title, "Father of Modern Diabetes Research," by becoming the first scientist to discover the role of insulin in glucose metabolism. While studying at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Levine and his colleagues, Soskin and Maurice Goldstein, M.D., determined "insulin's mechanical role in glucose metabolism." Contrary to the assumption that glucose molecules freely passed through the cell membrane, Levine's theory, known as the "Levine Effect" or transport theory, suggested that insulin served as the key regulatory factor for the transport of glucose into the cells. Levine theorized that insulin stimulates the transport of glucose from blood to fat/muscle cells and thus lowers blood glucose level.
 
Levine's greatest challenge was to prove his theory to the scientific community. To dispel the ideology that insulin only served in the chemical metabolism of glucose once inside the cell, he performed the following experiment. He injected dogs with galactose and then with galactose plus insulin, and measured the amount of galactose in the blood. Galactose is similar to glucose, in that it can be equally transported across the cell membrane. However, once inside the cell, galactose cannot be metabolized like glucose. If successful, the test would show that galactose could only be transported across the cell membrane in the presence of insulin. Levine's tests proved that galactose collected in the cells and, as a consequence, galactose levels in the blood dropped. Although Levine and his colleagues were able to publish their theory, it took them years to thoroughly convince the scientific community. Once accepted, this theory opened up doors to a new era of hormone research.

Levine's research success continued at City of Hope as he developed the City of Hope Diabetes Program. In 1978, he encouraged Arthur D. Riggs, Ph.D., the Samuel Rahbar Chair in Diabetes & Drug Discovery, and Keiichi Itakura, Ph.D., to genetically engineer E. coli bacteria to produce human insulin. This led to the development of Humulin^®, a new preparation of human insulin was the first genetically engineered health care product approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and is now used by millions of people worldwide.

After his retirement from City of Hope, he continued to contribute to the scientific community until the last weeks of his life. He left behind a legacy of over 60 years of diabetes research and served as mentor and advisor to many. He set an example for all scientists with his concept of a good scientist: "In my opinion, a good research scientist needs to have endless curiosity and enormous amounts of patience, since answers in the field of research come slowly and most painfully."

More information about Dr. Levine can be found here: https://www.cityofhope.org/research/riggs-institute/dmri-events-education/levine-symposium/about-rachmiel-levine