Since 1921, Virginia Mason has been a leader in diabetes care and research. Here are just a few of our diabetes milestones:

2002 — Virginia Mason performs the first islet cell transplant in Seattle.

2001 — The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) names Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason a JDRF Center for Translational Research.

1996 — Pat Concannon, PhD, of the Virginia Mason Research Center, discovers a gene important in causing type 2 diabetes.

1995 — The National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International name Virginia Mason as one of only eight centers worldwide to receive their Centers of Excellence Award for Virginia Mason's diabetes research program. Virginia Mason is awarded a $5 million research grant.

1993 — The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation gives its Living and Giving award to Gerald Nepom, MD, PhD, in recognition of Virginia Mason Research Center's breakthroughs in the genetics of diabetes and his leadership of the research center's internationally known research program.

1991 — Virginia Mason researchers discover the genetic code that will lead to attempts to "switch off" the gene that makes some people susceptible to diabetes.
 
1990 — The Diabetes Center is awarded recognition by the American Diabetes Association in accordance with National Standards for Diabetes Patient Education Programs. The Diabetes Center has been recertified every three years since 1990. 

1987 — Gerald Nepom, MD, PhD, Director of Benaroya Research Center, discovers the genetic marker for type 1 diabetes.

1980 — Virginia Mason becomes the first diabetes center in the world to show the benefits of insulin pumps for outpatient treatment of diabetes.

1956 — Virginia Mason is first in the Northwest to use diabetes pills to treat type 2 patients.

1923 — Virginia Mason becomes the first in the Pacific Northwest to use insulin in treating diabetes.