Rachmiel Levine-Arthur Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium

October 16-19, 2026
The Westin Pasadena

General inquiries:

Karen Ramos
Program Manager
[email protected]

Presented by:

Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute at City of Hope
1500 East Duarte Road

Duarte, CA 91010

Levine-Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium Program Development Committee

2026 Committee Members

Michael Brehm, Ph.D., UMass Chan Medical School
Hongkui Deng, M.D., Peking University Health Science Center
David Harlan, M.D., UMass Chan Medical School
Fouad Kandeel, M.D., Ph.D., City of Hope (Chair)
Thomas Kay, MBBS, Ph.D., (St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Resesarch)
Jeffrey Millman, Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
Rama Natarajan, Ph.D., City of Hope
Lori Sussel, Ph.D., University of Colorado Anschutz
Andrew Stewart, M.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Rupangi Vasavada, Ph.D., City of Hope
Jordan Wright, M.D., Ph.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, M.D., Technical University of Munich

Levine-Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium Registration

	Early Bird Fee*	Regular Fee
Physician/Scientist	$450	$500
Student/Trainee/Other Allied Health Provider	$250	$300
Industry	$700	$750
*Early bird rate ends July 31, 2026, 11:59 PM PST

How to Register

Go to Registration Form

Venue

The 2026 Rachmiel Levine-Arthur Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium will be held at the The Westin Pasadena at 191 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, California, (626) 792-2727.

Room Block

A limited block of sleeping rooms has been reserved at a special symposium rate of $249 per night for single or double occupancy, plus tax. The room block will be available until September 16, 2026, or until full, whichever comes first. Any room reservations made after this date will be on a room/rate-available basis.

Book your room online.

Parking

The Westin Pasadena has individual parking available as follows: valet ($28 per day), self-parking ($20 per day) and electric car charging stations.

Nearest Airports

Airports nearest to the venue include Hollywood Burbank Airport (16 miles), Los Angeles International Airport (28 miles) and Ontario International Airport (36 miles).

Cancellation Policy

Cancellations must be received in writing at [email protected] before September 1, 2026. Cancellations received before September 1 will receive a full refund of the registration minus a $50 processing fee. Cancellations received on or after September 1 or no-shows will not receive a refund. In the event City of Hope must cancel the conference due to unforeseen circumstances, City of Hope will refund the cost of registration.

Levine-Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium Exhibitors and Sponsorship

We are pleased to invite you to join us at the 2026 Rachmiel Levine-Arthur Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium hosted by the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute at City of Hope.

The Levine-Riggs Symposium audience includes the scientific research and clinical community at large, particularly endocrinologists, islet biologists, immunologists, cell biologists, and trainees in all these areas from the U.S. and abroad.

Support from our scientific partners is essential to the success of this symposium. We hope that you will be able to participate. Contact us at [email protected] for a sponsorship prospectus.

About Rachmiel Levine, M.D.

Rachmiel Levine, M.D., was born on Aug. 26, 1910 in Eastern Poland. At the age of 6, he suffered the loss of his mother and 10 years later, his father died in an anti-Jewish riot in the Ukraine. At the age of 16, Levine discovered that he had relatives who lived in America and attempted to relocate to the United States. Unable to obtain the visa to come to the United States, he emmigrated to Canada and was adopted by a Canadian physician. His first career choice was mathematics, but the depression of the 1930s influenced his decision to instead enter the field of medicine.

Levine received his undergraduate degree in 1932 and continued his education at McGill University, where he obtained his medical degree with honors in 1936. After medical school, he relocated to work in the field of diabetes research with Samuel Soskin, M.D., Ph.D., at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Levine completed his internship and residency training at the Michael Reese Hospital between the years 1936-1938. From the years 1942-1960, he served as director of the Department of Metabolism, chairman of the Department of Medicine and director of Medical Education at Michael Reese Hospital. He later relocated to New York Medical College, where he served as chairman of the Department of Medicine from 1960-1971.

In 1971, Levine became the executive medical director at City of Hope in Duarte, California. He served as director for eight years and, in 1984, City of Hope honored him with the title, deputy director for research emeritus.

Levine's research strengths were initially illustrated in his first published paper with Soskin entitled, "The Effects of Blood-Sugar Level on Glucose Utilization." With this research study, he introduced the theory that the greater the amount of glucose present in the blood, the greater the amount that is used by the body. In 1946, he published a book entitled, "Carbohydrate Metabolism." The publication of this book helped lay the base for future diabetes studies through its concise basic science summary. In 1949, he gained the title, "Father of Modern Diabetes Research," by becoming the first scientist to discover the role of insulin in glucose metabolism. While studying at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Levine and his colleagues, Soskin and Maurice Goldstein, M.D., determined "insulin's mechanical role in glucose metabolism." Contrary to the assumption that glucose molecules freely passed through the cell membrane, Levine's theory, known as the "Levine Effect" or transport theory, suggested that insulin served as the key regulatory factor for the transport of glucose into the cells. Levine theorized that insulin stimulates the transport of glucose from blood to fat/muscle cells and thus lowers blood glucose level.

Levine's greatest challenge was to prove his theory to the scientific community. To dispel the ideology that insulin only served in the chemical metabolism of glucose once inside the cell, he performed the following experiment. He injected dogs with galactose and then with galactose plus insulin, and measured the amount of galactose in the blood. Galactose is similar to glucose, in that it can be equally transported across the cell membrane. However, once inside the cell, galactose cannot be metabolized like glucose. If successful, the test would show that galactose could only be transported across the cell membrane in the presence of insulin. Levine's tests proved that galactose collected in the cells and, as a consequence, galactose levels in the blood dropped.

Although Levine and his colleagues were able to publish their theory, it took them years to thoroughly convince the scientific community. Once accepted, this theory opened up doors to a new era of hormone research.

Levine's research success continued at City of Hope as he developed the City of Hope Diabetes Program. In 1978, he encouraged Arthur D. Riggs, Ph.D., the Samuel Rahbar Chair in Diabetes & Drug Discovery, and Keiichi Itakura, Ph.D., to genetically engineer E. coli bacteria to produce human insulin. This led to the development of Humulin^®, a new preparation of human insulin was the first genetically engineered health care product approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and is now used by millions of people worldwide.

Levine retired from City of Hope on Nov. 15, 1991, but continued to contribute to the scientific community until the last weeks of his life. He left behind a legacy of over 60 years of diabetes research and served as mentor and advisor to many. He set an example for all scientists with his concept of a good scientist: "In my opinion, a good research scientist needs to have endless curiosity and enormous amounts of patience, since answers in the field of research come slowly and most painfully."

Levine was married to the late Anne Gussack, a psychiatric social worker and is survived by his daughter, Judith Anne Feldman, M.D., a Boston psychiatrist, and his son, Daniel Saul Levine, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Arlington. Levine died in Boston on Feb. 24, 1998, but will be remembered for his great contributions to the scientific world. Below is a small sample of the awards and honors that he received over the course of his lifetime.

Executive Medical Director, Emeritus: City of Hope
American Diabetes Association's Banting Medal
American Diabetes Association's Charles H. Best Medal
Joslin Medal
Thompson Medal
President of Harvey Society
Member of American Association of Physicians
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Spirit of Life^® Award: City of Hope
Lydia and Paul Kalmanovitz Chair in the Biology of Nutrition at City of Hope
Honorary Doctorate of Science degrees: Northwestern and McGill Universities
1964-1965: President of the American Diabetes Association
1967-1970: President and currently Life President of International Diabetes Federation
1980: New York College of Medicine dedicates diabetes center in honor of Dr. Levine
1982: Elected into National Academy of Sciences
1986: W.D. Sansum Award
1995: City of Hope dedicated the Rachmiel Levine, M.D., Diabetes Reading Room in its Graff Medical and Scientific Library

References

R Levine, MS Goldstein, B Huddlestun, SP Klein. Action of insulin on the permeability of cells to free hexoses, as studied by its effect on the distribution of galactose. Am J Physiol 163:70-76, 1950.
R Levine, M Goldstein. On the mechanism of action of insulin. Recent Prog Horm Res 11:343-380, 1955.
R Levine. Insulin action: 1948-80. Diabetes Care 4:38-44, 1981.

In Memoriam: Research pioneer Arthur D. Riggs, 82, developed the technology that led to the first human synthetic insulin to treat diabetes

A biotechnology pioneer and a longtime leader at City of Hope, Riggs served as director emeritus of Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope and the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute at City of Hope.

Riggs’ major scientific discoveries achieved over more than a half-century of research, paving the way for development of the monoclonal antibody therapies that are the foundation of modern treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, blindness and a host of other diseases. His breakthrough work in diabetes enabled mass production of insulin for people living with the disease. Today, synthetic insulin is used by hundreds of millions of people.

He was 82.

Riggs was already recognized for his novel research into the inner workings of DNA when he joined City of Hope as a research scientist in1969. In 1977, his research led to the creation of the first artificially synthesized gene and human protein, the important hormone inhibitor somatostatin, followed not long after by the first ever synthesis of human growth hormone. A year later, he was able to apply this disruptive technology to produce human insulin from bacteria — a breakthrough that saved countless lives and led directly to the launch of the $500 billion global biotech industry.

As a scientist and leader at City of Hope over the next 53 years, Riggs continued to perform groundbreaking research and make major contributions across the life sciences. His 1975 paper on mammalian epigenetics — how behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way genes work — remains one of the most frequently referenced on the subject. It was one of more than 200 scholarly papers on which he is an author, in addition to holding 20 patents. He was recognized for this lifetime of achievements by his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006.

“Arthur Riggs is one of the scientific giants of the age and should be a household name for his contributions to diabetes alone,” said Robert Stone, president and CEO of City of Hope and Helen and Morgan Chu Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair. “His research also led to the development of monoclonal antibody therapies that today treat cancer and other diseases. His amazing scientific accomplishments go far beyond one condition, though, both in his own work and in that of the dozens of talented researchers for whom he was a devoted mentor. City of Hope today owes an enormous debt to him, as do countless people whose lives have been changed by his discoveries.”

Arthur Dale Riggs was born on Aug. 8, 1939, to a farming family in Modesto, California. The family soon moved to San Bernardino, where his father, who had given up farming, built and managed a mobile home park. Riggs learned to build and fix things from his father, an inventive and mechanically adept man who once designed and built his own helicopter.

“Helping my father was a great learning experience,” he recalled in an interview in 2010. “But I also remember sometimes telling my father that I had homework to do in order to avoid digging ditches. I would then read science fiction rather than do my homework.”

Riggs’ lifelong passion for chemistry and biology was sparked by his mother, a nurse, who gave him a chemistry set at the age of 10. He also exhibited early the imagination that goes hand in hand with scientific research.

Drs. Arthur Riggs and Keichi Itakura first engineer human insulin in the laboratory

After graduating from San Bernardino High School, Riggs attended the University of California Riverside, where he earned a degree in chemistry in 1961. He was awarded his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1966 by Caltech, where he and fellow student Joel A. Huberman wrote a now classic paper on mammalian DNA replication. Notably, their thesis advisors — including Herschel (H.K.) Mitchell, Ph.D. — declined the usual practice of having their names attached to the paper. Instead, they insisted that Riggs and Huberman be the sole names on the paper, because of the originality and independence of their research.

That spirit of independent inquiry remained with Riggs throughout his career, beginning with postdoctoral work while still at Caltech. In 1968, he proposed a theory on DNA modification that suggested that epigenetic changes and metabolic memory have major roles in the pathophysiology of diabetes. This work virtually created the field of epigenetics, which has important applications in treating serious genetic diseases. It remained a major focus of his research for decades.

After postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute on the regulation of DNA in bacteria, Riggs came to City of Hope. Attracted by the diabetes researchers at City of Hope, along with the potential to apply his work to diabetes, he continued his research in the nascent field of recombinant DNA technology with a mission to help find a cure for the disease.

In 1976, he attended a lecture at City of Hope on DNA gene splicing given by a young University of California Berkeley scientist named Herb Boyer, who had just formed a two-person company called Genentech. Riggs and his colleague Keiichi Itakura, Ph.D. agreed, under City of Hope’s banner, to collaborate with Boyer’s nascent company on a project using E. coli bacteria as a “host” for synthesizing human proteins. In 1977, they succeeded in reverse-engineering the genetic code for a protein called somatostatin, an important inhibitor of many human hormones — and then did the same for human growth hormone — developing versions of the genes that would function inside the bacteria. It was a historic first that demonstrated that it was possible to “manufacture” complex human proteins.

The following year, Riggs and Itakura undertook the more daunting problem of achieving the same bacterial synthesis of human insulin, a far more complex protein than somatostatin or human growth hormone. This groundbreaking work enabled the large-scale production of synthetic insulin, which became the first genetically engineered product approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation bestowed its Research Award on Dr. Riggs in 1979 for this work, and the synthetic insulin he helped create is still used by hundreds of millions of people every day. The work also served as a catalyst for the biotech industry and the development of industrial biomedical technology.

“You cannot overestimate the importance of this seminal work, not simply to people with diabetes, but also in helping to found the field of biotechnology,” said Peter Dervan, Ph.D., Bren Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus, at Caltech. “Before Arthur Riggs, synthesizing human proteins was only an idea, and the potential of the biotechnology industry not yet evident. What Riggs and his colleagues did transformed aspirations into practice and provided a road map to an entirely new branch of applied molecular biology that has delivered untold benefits to humankind.”

Despite the enormous publicity surrounding the synthesis of human insulin and the subsequent creation of dozens of biotech companies all pursuing the limited scientific talent in the field, Riggs declined to join any of them. Instead, he returned to his research at City of Hope and continued to make important discoveries in epigenetics and other areas of life sciences over the course of his career.

“Art Riggs was an influential figure in my own development as a scientist," said Bruce Beutler, M.D., director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense, UT Southwestern Medical Center. "I had finished college and was working with Susumu Ohno, downstairs from Art’s lab, prior to attending medical school. I remember watching day by day in 1977 as Keiichi Itakura synthesized the insulin gene from a library of nucleotide triplets; then seeing Art and his group express the insulin protein in bacteria, and show that it was active. I had a strong sense that history was being made. I was very much in awe of him. Yet, he was perfectly approachable and friendly. It wasn’t until later that I learned of his many other accomplishments, particularly in the realm of epigenetics. He presented a wonderful example to follow, and was one of the greatest scientists of our time.”

Crucially, he recognized that antibodies could be used as treatment for many diseases. Riggs developed recombinant DNA technology capable of producing humanized monoclonal antibodies that are the foundation for an entire class of drugs that today comprise the standard immunotherapies for cancers of the lungs, prostate, breast, brain and other organs, as well as for previously untreatable ailments from age-related wet macular degeneration (a major cause of blindness), multiple sclerosis and HIV to autoimmune conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and plaque psoriasis.

“Art was one of the most brilliant scientists of our day. He had a remarkable ability to think outside the box and was not afraid to put forth bold ideas, many of which shifted existing paradigms and opened wholly new areas of exploration in basic and applied biology,” said Peter Jones, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “We first met in 1979, and over the years, swapped ideas, reveled in science and marveled at its beauty. Along with his commitment to groundbreaking science, Art and his wife were immensely generous with their resources and dedicated to improving the environment and medicine. City of Hope and, indeed, the entire scientific community, were so lucky to have such a gentleman scientist in our midst.”

Renowned not only for his scientific prowess but also his selfless leadership and ability to motivate and develop top research talent, in 1981 Riggs was named chair of the Division of Biology at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope; in 2000, he was named the institute’s director. In 1994, he became the founding dean of City of Hope’s Irell & Manella Graduate School for Biological Sciences. In 2016, he was named chair of the Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Research at City of Hope.

Throughout his tenure, Riggs demonstrated his commitment to teaching future generations of scientists in order to keep City of Hope at the forefront of research into diabetes. In an interview in 2019, Riggs described his collegial management style, which he credited to his experience with his doctoral advisors at Caltech.

“My philosophy for scientific leadership is to make suggestions, almost never orders,” Riggs said. “This is what my mentors did … My office door is open [and] I do try to be as nice as I can to everybody.”

Riggs served as director of City of Hope’s Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute until he reached his 81^st birthday. He relinquished that position to Debbie C. Thurmond, Ph.D., but remained focused on research, as well as remaining the Samuel Rahbar Distinguished Chair in Diabetes & Drug Discovery.

In addition to devoting himself to research at City of Hope, Riggs also devoted much of the wealth he realized from his discoveries to support its mission. Insisting on anonymity, he gave more than $200 million of his own money to City of Hope over the course of two decades. Near the end of his life, he made a further gift of $100 million, bringing the total of his gifts to more than $310 million during his lifetime. In honor of his philanthropic and scientific contributions to City of Hope, the research institute he founded and managed for so many years was renamed the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute.

“It is a humbling honor to take responsibility for this institute that Riggs so lovingly and painstakingly built,” said Thurmond, Ruth B. & Robert K. Lanman Chair in Gene Regulation & Drug Discovery Research. “It’s entirely fitting that it should carry his name, even as we carry on the work he began for the benefit of people with diabetes. His philanthropy is an extension of the generosity of spirit he has shown to me and everyone else who has ever walked through these doors.”

Riggs agreed to have his contributions acknowledged publicly in the hope it would place a spotlight on City of Hope’s accomplishments over the last half-century and encourage similar support from other major donors. His insistence on anonymity for years was in keeping with his principles for living an ordinary life and shunning any of the trappings of wealth and the attention it would bring. He lived for 50 years in the same home he bought when he came to City of Hope, and refused to spend money on expensive cars or other luxury items, in part because he did not want his family’s lives to be affected by wealth. A colleague once asked if Riggs had ever had the desire to do even a little splurging, to which he replied, “Well, I do always have the latest iPhone.”

Riggs also was a fan of basketball — so much so that it helped guide his career. In a 2010 interview, Riggs said one reason he chose Mitchell as his graduate school mentor was “because I enjoyed playing basketball, and he was the coach of an intramural basketball team.”

“Art was soft-spoken, gentle, kind and sometimes, very shy,” said Keiichi Itakura, Ph.D., professor emeritus with City of Hope's Center for RNA Biology and Therapeutics. “But when it came to science and sports, he was very determined and didn’t hold anything back. He never wanted to retire and would still come to us with research ideas. I am grateful for all of the long-lasting memories of our time together whether it was in the lab, on the racquetball court or spending time in nature.”

Riggs is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.

“The extraordinary work Art has done lives on in all of us who are committed to carrying on his legacy of eradicating diabetes and cancer, particularly the scientists he trained and influenced who follow in his footsteps, and in the countless lives his life’s work has touched in such a profound way,” Stone added.