Anita Palmer Corbin learned to meet challenges head-on when she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 10 in 1964. Her mother first noticed the symptoms, and after blood tests confirmed a problem, she was admitted to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, located one hour north of her home in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. No visitors were allowed except immediate family members, and since both of her parents worked, she was left with few visitors for nearly two weeks while doctors brought her diabetes under control.
From the time of her diagnosis, Anita, who died in 2023, was told she had a disability that would prevent her from living a full life. On the contrary, she never allowed the disease to stand in her way. She enjoyed a more than 20-year career at St. Louis-based Ralston Purina Co., which became Nestlé Purina PetCare after merging with Nestlé in 2011, and became the company’s youngest and first female officer. In her retirement, Anita traveled the world, riding elephants in Thailand, walking with lions in South Africa, and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Anita wanted to create a permanent legacy to honor her medical journey and the experiences of family members who faced serious illnesses. Now, an $11 million gift from her trust, which is expected to grow in the coming years, is helping advance critical work at Washington University School of Medicine. The gift established three endowed funds to drive research and develop new treatments for Type 1 diabetes, leukemia, and lymphoma. The funds augment three corresponding spendable funds created by Corbin in 2022.
Anita hoped to inspire all individuals battling a disease to live boldly, says her husband, Daniel Corbin. “She refused to let her diagnosis define her life and didn’t accept it as a limitation to what she could accomplish,” he says. “Every time she talked with other people facing health challenges, she would tell them, ‘You can do anything you want.’ She encouraged them to take ownership of their disease so it didn’t own them. She left a lasting impression on countless lives.”
A quest to cure diabetes
Anita championed many causes throughout her life, but diabetes research was among her top priorities. Fittingly, $2.75 million from her gift to WashU Medicine established the Anita Palmer Corbin Diabetes Research Endowed Fund to support Type 1 diabetes research in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Lipid Research.
According to Jeffrey Millman, PhD, professor of medicine, annual payout from the fund has helped accelerate efforts to develop cellular replacement therapy for individuals with Type 1 diabetes. Millman and collaborators previously converted human stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells that were able to rapidly cure diabetes in mice. They have been honing the process to improve the survival and function of insulin-producing beta cells transplanted into patients.
“Anita’s generous gift has enabled us to focus on the work necessary to make this therapy a reality,” says Millman, who also is a professor of biomedical engineering. “If successful, this treatment could eliminate the need for individuals to monitor their blood sugar levels or inject themselves with insulin, effectively curing diabetes.”
“Anita was certain that one day there was going to be a cure for Type 1 diabetes. And she was confident it would come from WashU Medicine. She would be very happy to see how her investment has led to scientific breakthroughs that could change lives.”
Daniel Corbin
With resources from the fund, Millman has been able to experiment with optimizing the process so that the beta cells secrete higher amounts of insulin when exposed to elevated sugar levels. His objective is for the lab-grown cells to mimic natural human cells as closely as possible. The unrestricted funding has allowed him to pursue high-risk, high-reward ideas more quickly.
“Private philanthropy is a major driver of innovation,” he says. “We’ve been able to explore new approaches that were previously on the back burner because funds weren’t available. Additionally, our results generated key preliminary data that will help us obtain funding from other major granting organizations. Without this initial support, securing larger grants would be extremely challenging.”
The gift also reflects Anita’s appreciation for the care and encouragement she received from Charles J. Kilo, BS ’55, MD ’59, former professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Lipid Research. During her lifetime, Anita was a board member and major supporter of the Kilo Diabetes and Vascular Research Foundation, a philanthropic organization founded by Kilo and another physician.
“Anita was certain that one day there was going to be a cure for Type 1 diabetes,” Corbin says. “And she was confident it would come from WashU Medicine. She would be very happy to see how her investment has led to scientific breakthroughs that could change lives.”
Innovative treatments for blood cancers
Anita’s gift is also fueling research at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WashU Medicine. The gift established two endowed funds at the cancer center — $7 million for leukemia research and $1.25 million for lymphoma research.
The Trevor Stuart Palmer Memorial Leukemia Endowed Fund pays tribute to Anita’s nephew, who died from the disease shortly after his diagnosis at age 26. She believed if Trevor had received care at a world-class cancer center like Siteman, he would have been accurately diagnosed earlier and obtained lifesaving treatment.
Payout from the fund will further efforts that are part of the School of Medicine’s Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in leukemia, a prestigious grant from the National Cancer Institute. The medical school’s SPORE in leukemia is one of only two such programs in the nation.
The leukemia fund currently supports work with patients who have acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome with mutations in an important gene called TP53. Outcomes for patients with these types of blood cancers are typically poor, with survival rates of less than a year. Researchers in the lab of Dan Link, MD, professor of medicine and principal investigator for WashU Medicine’s leukemia SPORE, have identified a promising new drug combination that selectively kills leukemia cells with TP53 mutations. A clinical trial based on their observations is in development.
The Daniel E. Corbin Lymphoma Research Endowed Fund created by Anita’s gift recognizes the many years of outstanding care Daniel received at Siteman. “When I initially visited another facility, the providers treated many different types of cancer in one room,” he says. “Siteman was a godsend because my entire care team specialized in lymphoma, and I felt reassured that each person was an expert who could solve any problem that might come up.”
This year, the fund’s resources are bolstering efforts led by John DiPersio, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, to improve an immunotherapy technique called CAR-T cell therapy for individuals with a fast-growing non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Investigators are testing different combinations of cytokines, proteins that help activate the immune system, to enhance the ability of CAR-T cells to kill lymphoma cells.
“Siteman is at the forefront of advancing groundbreaking discoveries that revolutionize the way we understand and treat blood cancers,” says cancer center director Timothy Eberlein, MD, who also serves as the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and senior associate dean for cancer programs at WashU Medicine and BJC HealthCare. “It is through partnerships with forward-thinking philanthropists like Anita that visionary ideas come to life. Investments in our research have the power to save lives and set new standards of care worldwide.”
A remarkable life
Anita grew up the youngest of four children and the only daughter. As a child, she ran home from school to finish her homework and chores so she had time to play outside. Daniel says her motto was always work first, play second.
Though her family thought it would be difficult for her to go to college, Anita earned her undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and received a master’s degree in business administration with a focus on finance from Saint Louis University.
Anita began her career with Ernst and Young LLP and then joined Ralston Purina in 1979 as a senior accountant. She held several positions of increasing responsibility and was named corporate vice president and controller of the company in 1994.
She met Daniel at Ralston Purina, though they did not begin dating until years later after their first marriages had ended. Together, the couple enjoyed logging miles on their motorcycles. Anita was also an avid bicyclist, covering ground from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Florida beaches. Still, she experienced lifelong complications from diabetes, which contributed to her death.
Today, Daniel wears a silver necklace engraved with Anita’s index fingerprint and the inscription “The love of my life, I am a better man and person because of you.” The engraving shows dozens of scars from where she pricked her finger to test her blood. “Diabetes is a terrible disease,” he says. “If Anita’s gift to WashU Medicine spares even one person from experiencing what she went through, her struggles will have been worthwhile.”
Learn more about how you can support research and patient care at WashU Medicine.
