 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 
|
| Photo: Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute |
|
In Search of a Cure
Hispanics and Diabetes: The Facts In her lab—among the microscopes, test tubes, and reams of reports—Lydia Aguilar-Bryan, M.D., imagines a world free of diabetes, a disease that has struck at the heart of her family and her community.
“I have always had a very clear vision of what I want to do and when I want to do it,” says Aguilar-Bryan, 57, born in Mexico City to a Russian American mother and a Mexican father.
That vision has served her well. And it seems Cupid—and fate—conspired to place the young doctor on the path to achieving a dramatic breakthrough in medical science. Growing up in Mexico City, the little girl watched her paternal grandmother and one of her uncles die from diabetes. In 1979, as a young doctor interested in the genetic component of chronic disease, she left the Mexican capital for Starr County, Texas, on the Mexican border to conduct field work among a Mexican American community with a diabetes rate close to 35 percent. While there, she earned a doctorate at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston—and met Joseph Bryan, a molecular biologist 10 years her senior who worked at the Baylor College of Medicine. Meeting Bryan would change the path Aguilar-Bryan had traced for herself. In 1985 the couple married and Aguilar-Bryan reset her course. She gave up her medical practice in Mexico and accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Baylor, joining Bryan in the lab and refocusing her energy on diabetes research. The Breakthrough Completing medical school at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México ranks among the proudest moments of Aguilar-Bryan’s life: “That was a goal that I set,” she underscores. Another highlight was the birth of her daughter Joanna, now 19 and a student at Walla Walla University in Washington state. But it was in 1995, while at Baylor, that Lydia and Joe pulled off a feat that had stumped researchers the world over. After 10 years of painstaking trial and error, they isolated a protein in the pancreas that controls the process of insulin secretion and subsequently identified the location of the gene on chromosome 11, which produces insulin. The discovery marked a turning point in the understanding and treatment of diabetes. “It was very, very important because until you can do something like that with a protein, it becomes almost impossible to know what is going on,” Aguilar-Bryan says. Wife, Colleague, Mentor For the couple, sharing their lives both in and out of the lab is second nature. “Our personal and professional lives are completely intertwined,” says Bryan, 67. “I’m more the lab person, the one who sees the data gets collected, the figures get made, the writing gets polished. Lydia is the people person, the organizer, the politician.” “We don’t compete,” says Aguilar-Bryan. “I’m more trained as a physician, and he’s more trained as a basic researcher, so we complement each other.”
They even tackled childcare in tandem. When Joanna was born, they simply brought her to the lab. “I was breastfeeding, so I would come down [to Joe’s office] and feed her and then go back up [to the lab],” says Aguilar-Bryan. While at Baylor, in addition to the demands of research and child rearing, Aguilar-Bryan took on teaching duties, mentoring many of her medical and graduate students. “She was interested in seeing all students do well, but she was particularly interested in making sure that minority students succeeded,” notes Lynnette Burks, 33, a 2007 Baylor graduate with a doctorate in molecular and human genetics. “Talking to her is like talking to an older sister or a favorite aunt for whom you have a lot of respect. [She] reinforced for me that there must be a balance between career, personal life, health, family, and other interests. That proved to be extremely valuable advice.” Celina Montemayor, currently pursuing her doctorate in molecular and cellular biology at Baylor, echoes that sentiment. “Dr. Aguilar is a brilliant scientist, an excellent friend,” says the 31-year-old native of Monterrey, Mexico. Montemayor credits Aguilar-Bryan for steering her toward a career in academic research. Montemayor and Aguilar-Bryan also extended a hand to other women in the field, launching a support group for Latina biological researchers in Houston a few years ago. “She was truly an inspiration for all of us,” says Montemayor. What's Next? At the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute, a nonprofit biomedical and clinical research center in Seattle, Lydia and Joe continue their groundbreaking work. Their current project involves studying how changes in the intrauterine environment caused by changes in the mother’s diet affect the baby's risk for developing diabetes later in life.
So for now, neither Lydia nor Joe plans to retire. “As long as we have funding, we are going to work,” she says. Their research has taken them around the world, and they trek down to Mexico at least twice a year. There, Aguilar-Bryan reconnects with her family and loads up on Latin American literature; she is especially fond of the work of women writers like Isabel Allende and Ángeles Mastretta. Even if funding—a perpetual struggle to attract—does dry up, Aguilar-Bryan doesn’t envision slowing down any time soon. “There are a lot of other things that I can do just working with people,” she says. “I’m interested in so many things that, for me, finding something else to do wouldn’t be a problem.”  Diabetes: Are you at risk? This free interactive tool from the American Diabetes Association can help you determine your risk of developing diabetes. These links are provided for informational purposes only. AARP does not endorse, and has no control over, or responsibility for, the linked sites or the content, advertisements, materials, products, or services available on or throughout these sites. |
|||||||
