17 September DRC Director's Report - September 2024 September 17, 2024 By The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center DRC, Iowa, Diabetes 0 FOEDRC faculty, Dr. Samuel Stephens, Associate Professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Department of Internal Medicine, has been awarded 2 major grants. The first is a three-year, $1.3M R01 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) for his project, “Defining the contribution of mitochondrial redox metabolism to support proinsulin folding in the endoplasmic reticulum.” The second is a three-year research grant for a total of up to $750,000 entitled “Role of β-cell Golgi dysfunction in Type 1 diabetes pathogenesis”, from Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF). For the NIDDK project, Dr. Stephens and his team will be investigating the role of pan-creatic beta cell (β-cell) failure in the transition from insulin resistance to Type 2 diabetes. Because defects in the β-cell’s synthesis of insulin are not completely understood, understanding if and how β-cell function could be restored would have significant therapeutic value. “Our observations have identified a new mechanism linking defects in mitochondrial and redox metabolism with the decline of insulin production in Type 2 diabetes,” Stephens said. “Our proposed studies will define the molecular linkages be-tween mitochondrial metabolism and insulin production and address how this process is dismantled early in the development of Type 2 diabetes.” Regarding the Breakthrough T1D project, “Our recent studies have uncovered a novel role for immune-derived inflammatory signals in remodeling the β-cell’s surface that may provide critical insight into the beta-cell’s role in Type 1 diabetes development,” Stephens said and that “We propose that inflammatory mediators activate a molecular switch in the β-cell that generates immunogenic signals on the β-cell surface. Our work will define the molecular mechanisms of how inflammatory signals activate this molecular switch and define key changes to the β-cell surface.” Notably, both grants build on preliminary work funded by the FOEDRC Pilot & Feasibility grant that Dr. Stephens obtained in 2022, demonstrating a significant return on investment. Congratulations to Dr. Stephens on this milestone! We look forward to celebrating even more of his achievements in the future. Related Articles DRC Director's Report - September 2022 Over the past decade, evidence has emerged indicating that high blood sugars in type 1 diabetes cause adverse brain changes in children. The adverse changes include abnormal brain structural alterations and reduced functioning on some cognitive tests. Over the past few years, hybrid closed-loop insulin pumps have become commercially available. These devices combine a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) with an insulin pump that is controlled by an algorithm that uses the CGM data to inform insulin delivery. DRC Director's Report - September 2021 Congratulations to Huxing Cui, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology and member of the FOEDRC, who is the recent recipient of a National Institutes of Health R01 grant. Cui’s grant funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides $2,267,270 through March of 2025. The proposal is entitled: “Decoding brain circuit underlying metabolic regulation of sleep-wake behavior”. Sleep disorders and obesity are inextricably linked – poor sleep quality and short sleep duration increase the risk of developing obesity, while obesity is an independent risk factor for chronic sleep disruption (CSD) and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). 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 - March 2024 Diabetes, the leading global journal for basic diabetes research, sought the expertise of Dr. Renata Pereira, a faculty member of the FOEDRC, to review and analyze recent development in specific, but important area of diabetes research. This state-of-the-art review recently authored by Dr. Pereira titled "Mitochondrial Dynamics, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease" was published in the January edition of the journal. DRC Director's Report - July 2024 Liver health is a critical concern, especially for individuals with diabetes. While it has long been recognized that type 2 diabetes and obesity can damage the liver (a condition known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis or MASH), the association between type 1 diabetes and MASH has been less clear. Recent evidence has shed light on this connection. It appears that even people with type 1 diabetes can develop MASH, particularly if they are also obese. Understanding how this occurs and identifying strategies to prevent liver damage in type 1 diabetes patients is crucial. DRC Director's Report - September 2020 Renata Pereira, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and member of the FOEDRC, is the recipient of a new NIH R01 grant for $1.9M to support her work entitled The role of the integrated stress response in brown adipose tissue-mediated metabolic adaptations. “Obesity and related conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, are some of the greatest health problems affecting today’s society. In an effort to better understand ways in which the body can increase its metabolism to burn fat and prevent the effects of those diseases, Dr. Pereira has focused her studies on special fat cells called brown (or beige) fat cells. Showing 0 Comment Comments are closed.