Diabetes Research Forum 2023

To mark November as Diabetes Awareness Month, the Stanford Diabetes Research Center (SDRC) organizes a Diabetes Research Forum each year. The eighth iteration of this series was held on Nov 17th, 2023 at the Berg Hall in Li Ka Shing Center. The Diabetes Research Forum is a symposium with presentations from Pilot and Feasibility (P&F) award winners. Members from within the center, including faculty members, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows attended this year. We had the following speakers:

  • Anna L Gloyn, DPhil, Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics: "Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms of Beta cell Failure in Type 2 Diabetes"

  • Jing Li, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Immunology, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and University of Pittsburgh: "Decoding molecular drivers of pathogenic T cells in type 1 diabetes"

  • Aimee Bastidas-Ponce, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Pediatrics: "Underlaying beta-cell development and function"

  • Lay Teng Ang, PhD, Instructor, Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine: "Purified populations of human hepatocytes for regenerative medicine and BSL4 virology"

  • Michael Hughes, MD, Instructor, Department of Medicine: "Optimizing adult endocrinology receivership from pediatric endocrinology through guided transfer: Current status and future directions"

  • Past Awardees:

    • Brittany Matheson, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences:
      "Pilot study investigating the relationship between neurocognitive functioning and insulin sensitivity in youth with severe obesity undergoing laparoscopic vertical sleeve gastrectomy"

    • Sneha Roy, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Biology: "Mapping calcineurin signaling pathways that cause pancreatitis"

    • Leslee Nguyen, PhD Student, Department of Biochemistry: "Development of a tolerogenic vaccine for the prevention of type 1 diabetes"

    • John Yoon, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Endocrinology, University of California, Davis:
      "Modulation of systemic glucose metabolism via adipose tissue thermogenesis"

Dr. Anna L Gloyn and Dr. Sun Kim, Co-Directors of the SDRC Pilot and Feasibilty Program, showcased the success of the program over the last 8 years. It was exciting to see the breadth of projects that have been funded since the center has received NIH funding. Dr. Gloyn and Dr. Kim highlighted publications and grants that have benefited from pilot funding from SDRC. They also thanked the support of partnering departments and institutes at Stanford that have co-funded pilot awards. The 2023 P&F awardees presented updates on their progress so far and received valuable feedback from members of the diabetes research community. 9 Stanford and 3 regional new pilot awards have been granted in 2023 and the awardees presented their proposed work that will begin in January 2024.