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- Posted Tuesday October 11, 2011
Family of country music legend Waylon Jennings hits the right note with the Waylon Fund
Fund supports TGen research into diabetes and its associated
complications
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Oct. 11, 2011 - The late country music legend
Waylon Jennings is famous for songs like Good Hearted Woman,
Luckenbach Texas, and Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be
Cowboys.
Now, his "kicking down the doors" style of music will infuse the
Waylon Fund for Diabetes Research. Working with Waylon Jennings's
widow, Jessi Colter, and their son Shooter Jennings, the
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) today announced
the establishment of the fund to support and accelerate research
into diabetes.
Jennings, who lived much of his storied career in Arizona, died in
2002 at age 64 from complications of diabetes.
The Waylon Fund will support state-of-the-art investigations into
the genetic and genomic origins of diabetes -a disease that
afflicts nearly 26 million Americans- in an effort to produce
better treatments and give patients better quality of life.
"I am honored to put Waylon's name behind TGen's diabetes research
efforts. I have met the researchers and am confident that donations
in Waylon's memory are an investment that will lead to better ways
of preventing and detecting the disease," said Jessi Colter.
The new TGen initiative is drawing special support from the
country-music industry. Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), Ernest Tubb
Record Shops, and Music News Nashville already are promoting the
fund.
Just as Waylon's "Outlaw" genre challenged the Nashville
establishment and spearheaded the crossover appeal and
re-popularization of country music, the Waylon Fund will enable
TGen to challenge conventional ideas and discover novel ways of
attacking diabetes.
"TGen is extremely grateful to the family of Waylon Jennings, who
have so generously allowed his name to be the inspirational
centerpiece of this promising new research effort," said TGen
Foundation President Michael Bassoff.
All contributions to the Waylon Fund will be put to work
immediately to speed the development of new treatments by enabling
TGen researchers to conduct comprehensive genomic, or DNA, analysis
of diabetes, using the latest technology.
Dr. Johanna DiStefano, Professor and Director of TGen's Diabetes,
Cardiovascular & Metabolic Diseases Division, leads a team of
researchers focused on the genetic factors that cause or contribute
to complications due to Type I and Type II diabetes. Under
Dr. DiStefano's direction, TGen's team of scientists has important
work underway in five areas of diabetes research: heart disease,
diabetic nephropathy, obesity, liver disease, and individualized
treatment strategies.
From Dr. DiStefano's most recent work, which replicates findings
and characterizes a cellular pathway that contributes to diabetes
through changes in gene expression not DNA sequence, to the
discovery of genes and genetic markers that contribute to our
overall body of knowledge surrounding diabetes and its associated
complications, TGen is at the forefront of today's diabetes
research.
For more information, visit www.thewaylonfund.org.
