Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA /New York, USA :
When Dr. Rubina Heptulla, a pediatric endocrinologist who was just awarded a $1.1 million grant to study a possible new use of a diabetes drug, isn’t doing research or treating patients, she can be found scuba diving off the coast of India or eating calamari at the Mamaroneck Diner.
The 46-year-old Rye resident leads the pediatric endocrinology program at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to figure out if the drug Januvia can help people with a less common form of diabetes.
The drug is now used for people with the most common form of diabetes, Type 2. Heptulla’s research is trying to determine if the medication can also help people with the more rare form of the disease, Type 1, control blood sugar levels after a meal. The once-a-day medication would be taken in addition to insulin by study participants to see if helps prevent blood sugar levels from rising.
Heptulla has had an interest in treating Type 1 diabetes – an autoimmune disease that can’t be prevented or cured – since childhood because her father had the disease. Unlike Type 2 diabetes, the illness is not related to diet or lifestyle and most often develops when a person is young.
The Westchester resident grew up in Mumbai and attended medical school there, completing her training in Rhode Island, Boston and at Yale. Heptulla was living in Houston with her husband, a geneticist, and their two children when she was recruited to lead the pediatric endocrinology program at Montefiore.
She is chief of the division of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. She is also professor of pediatrics and medicine at Einstein.
As part of the job, she oversees six pediatric endocrinology and diabetes clinics that treat 200 patients each week, including one in Eastchester and one on Central Park Avenue in Yonkers.
When she’s not taking care of her young patients or doing research, Heptulla can be found at home engaging in one of her favorite pastimes, painting landscape portraits.
Ten things you didn’t know about Dr. Rubina Heptulla:
1.
She has a 17-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, both students at Rye Neck High School.
2.
Her favorite restaurant is the Mamaroneck Diner, where she often orders calamari – along with a salad.
3.
She manages to sneak away to her native India at least once a year, where she enjoys shopping for the latest in both contemporary and traditional clothing.
4.
Heptulla is a certified scuba diver and when she’s in India she likes to go to Lakshadweep, a series of islands off the southwestern coast known for its diving.
5.
When she was a child she wanted to be an artist.
6.
She still loves to paint and is now experimenting with acrylics. Her home overlooks the Marshlands Conservancy and she has set up an easel on a staircase landing that gives her a good view of the changing landscape.
7.
She belongs to a book club and not long ago hosted a talk at her home with author Rebecca Lewis about her novel “Jacob’s Folly.”
8.
Heptulla spends a lot of time at the Rye YMCA, where she takes classes in Zumba, yoga and swims.
9.
She likes Lady Gaga.
10.
Her favorite author is Bryce Courtenay. a South African-born Australian best known for his novel, “The Power of One.”
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Participants are needed for Dr. Heptulla’s research into the use of Januvia in people with Type 1 diabetes. To be eligible a person must:
Be between the ages of 13 and 30.
Have Type 1 diabetes.
Have no other medical condition except for hypothyroidism.
For more information, contact:
Jeniece Trast at 718-741-2542 or jtrast@montefiore.org
Venkat Renukuntla, at 718-920-7004 or ven kat.renukuntla@ein stein.yu.edu
source: http://www.lohud.com / Lohud.com / Home> USA Today / by Jane Lerner / January 04th, 2014