Director's Note

As the celebration of NIDDK’s 75th anniversary begins, we reflect on the remarkable progress the Institute has helped unlock over the years. Through fostering fundamental creative discoveries and innovative research strategies, we have learned how to apply them to our country’s most common, chronic, costly, and consequential diseases.

NIDDK research has revolutionized prevention and treatment of diseases across the Institute’s mission areas. The development of long-acting insulin and artificial pancreas technologies have made a difference in everyday life for people living with diabetes. NIDDK research has also led to the first effective medicines approved to treat inflammatory bowel disease, hepatitis C, and sickle cell anemia. And giving us hope for the future, recent breakthroughs have put us at the cusp of understanding how the kidneys and other tissues can be repaired once damaged.

In this issue, we highlight the extraordinary success of collaboration in science, through award-winning extramural research and the NIDDK-supported researchers behind the awards. NIDDK’s extramural research portfolio helps to harness the creativity and expertise of scientists at universities, small businesses, and other research institutions throughout the world.

Long-term research benefits public health, through answering clinical questions over time that shorter studies cannot. The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), and its long-term outcome study, the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC), observed its 40th anniversary in 2024. Read about the five-article collection highlighting new type 1 diabetes research from DCCT/EDIC in Diabetes Care and more new, impactful NIDDK-supported research in the Research Updates section.

None of these or other NIDDK achievements over the years would be possible without our outstanding NIDDK staff, whom we celebrate in this issue. Their dedicated and exceptional service is essential to moving advances in public health forward. We also welcome new staff, congratulate award-winners, and wish a fond farewell to those who have recently retired.

Thanks to decades of hard work by NIDDK-supported researchers, NIDDK staff, and clinical study volunteers, research and treatment for the diseases and conditions within our mission look very different today compared to the 1950s. The observance of NIDDK’s 75th anniversary encourages us to appreciate how far we’ve come, dream big, and look forward to the progress we’ll make in the years to come.

In good health,

Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P.
Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

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