Latest News

DRC Director's Report - September 2023

Health and Human Physiology assistant professor Anna Stanhewicz has just been awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health totaling $3.035 million to put towards her research. Her focus lies in gestational diabetes and the long-term impact it has on those who have had it. 

Women who develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy are two times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 7 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in the decade after pregnancy, but the reason why this occurs is unclear and there are currently no specific treatment strategies to prevent this disease progression.

DRC Director's Report - August 2023

The FOEDRC maintains two Core Research Facilities. FOEDRC scientists rely heavily on these two Core Research Facilities. These Cores are centralized laboratories that allow researchers to perform experiments needing specialized technologies in a time- and cost-efficient way. This month we focus our report on the world-class FOEDRC Metabolomics Core Facility.

DRC Director's Report - July 2023

Dr. Julien Sebag is leading one of the research projects funded through the Bridge to Cure program. This month, his project has reached a major milestone, having been published in a prestigious journal. In this publication Dr. Sebag recognized the support provided by the FOE through the Bridge to the Cure program.

DRC Directors' Report - June 2023

This year the American Diabetes Association (ADA) organizes an annual scientific meeting that is attended by thousands of diabetes researchers from across the globe. This is the largest and most important diabetes research meeting. This year, the ADA is expecting over 12,000 participants in their scientific meeting, which will be held June 23 - 26 in San Diego, California. The annual ADA scientific meetings serve as a crucial platform for the exchange of knowledge and advancements in the field of diabetes research. These conferences are planned and organized by select diabetes scientists who work to ensure a successful and impactful event.

DRC Director's Report - May 2023

The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center held its Annual Diabetes Research Day on Monday, April 17th. With a strong emphasis on collaboration and sharing of knowledge, this event brought together about 65 researchers, clinicians, and students to advance the understanding of diabetes and improve patient outcomes. Diabetes Research Day featured a lineup of activities including short talks, a keynote address, T32 presentations and a poster session

DRC Update - April 2023

Kamal Rahmouni, PhD, FOEDRC Co-Director and Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology has recently received a new R01 grant funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. His project title “Role of FGF21 Action in Hypothalamic Neurons in Obesity-Associated Hypertension” will be funded through November of 2026.

DRC Director's Update - March 2023

The treatments available for persons with cystic fibrosis and for persons with diabetes have both been advancing rapidly over the past half-decade. It is no surprise therefore that care for persons with both conditions, termed cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD), is advancing as well. An updated set of treatment guidelines for CFRD have been issued by the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes. The guidelines have been indexed in Pubmed and can be found here (https://doi.org/10.1111/pedi.13453). The lead author of the guidelines is Dr. Katie Larson Ode, who is one of the FOEDRC faculty.

DRC Directors' Report - February 2023

Congratulations to our Bridge to the Cure new recipient! 

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Bing Li was selected as a new recipient of the Bridge to the Cure award. Dr. Li will join current recipients of this Award: Dr Julien Sebag and Dr. Calvin Carter. 

The Bridge to a Cure initiative is designed to support members of the FOEDRC to accelerate promising research aimed at the development of novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment and/or prevention of diabetes. The support has been made possible by an ongoing commitment of the Fraternal Order of Eagles (FOE) to support the mission of the FOEDRC. 

DRC Director's Report - January 2023

The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center held its 8th annual retreat on December 3, 2022, at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Center. DRC faculty and senior trainees came together for a day of research and celebration of the Center’s continued success. 

The day began with opening remarks by Co-Directors’ Kamal Rahmouni, PhD and Andrew Norris, MD, PhD followed by updates from the Metabolic Phenotyping Core and the Metabolomics Core Facility. We also heard from two new DRC faculty members, Bing Li, PhD, and Marcelo Correia, MD. This year we listened to presentations reporting annual progress from last year’s Pilot and Feasibility Grant Recipients, Katie Larson Ode, MD, Jon Resch, PhD, Ling Yang, PhD and Erin Talbert, PhD.

DRC Director's Report - December 2022

We recently announced the results of the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center twelfth round of pilot and feasibility research grants. These grant awards fund innovative pilot projects by early career investigators who are entering the diabetes research field, or established investigators with innovative ideas that focus on a new direction in diabetes research. 

The goal of the program is to generate data that will enable awardees to compete for peer-reviewed national funding for projects that show exceptional promise. A total of 13 researchers from across the University of Iowa campus submitted meritorious proposals that underwent a comprehensive and competitive review.