Diabetes Institute
The UF Diabetes Institute’s mission is to see a world free of diabetes.
The UF Diabetes Institute’s mission is to see a world free of diabetes. A key step to achieving this goal is to better understand the disease’s two major forms, Type 1 and Type 2. This includes determining what causes diabetes, identifying a means to predict who will eventually develop it, finding ways to prevent and/or cure the disorder’s progression, and identifying methods capable of disease reversal.
These objectives are addressed in many ways. For example, the institute’s investigators in Gainesville and Jacksonville lead basic science, translational and clinical research studies on living subjects as well as tissue samples from organ donors to better characterize diabetes development, identify novel biomarkers and develop new potential therapies directed at key points in the roadmap that culminates in diabetes. Other institute members address diabetes from a variety of social and/or behavioral perspectives, including issues of family, self-identity, the benefits of diabetes education, and access to disease management technologies. Investigators are also exploring factors such as food choices, economics, diabetes’ impact in veterinary medicine (dogs and cats), health care access and more. Diabetes Institute investigators have a reputation for conducting “bench-to-bedside” efforts, seeking to improve the lives of those with the disease.
Indeed, the Diabetes Institute’s efforts set an emphasis on community outreach, patient education and stakeholder engagement to positively affect diabetes management and care at each phase of life — childhood, adolescence, adulthood and elder care. From either a research or clinical care perspective, the institute’s investigators are recognized nationally or internationally for excellence in their performance.
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Lead the Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes program (nPOD), which collects and uses tissue samples from organ donors for research. This is but one of five programs collecting organ donor tissues, with a combined annual budget of over $6 million.
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One of five institutions nationwide selected by the NIH to help create a groundbreaking 3D cellular map of the human body that may one day transform understanding of diseases; the $5.1 million, nearly four-year HuBMAP grant will allow UF Health researchers to map key parts of the lymphatic system, which helps fight infections and disease.
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Leadership in international Type 1 diabetes research consortia focusing on Type 1 diabetes risk screening and innovative clinical studies (TrialNet); environmental determinants of Type 1 diabetes in children (The TEDDY study); and clinical trials studying oral insulin, pancreas volume and other therapies.
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Creation of programs designed to identify barriers to leading-edge technologies that would lead to improved diabetes management, including those of migrant populations to the U.S.
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Led by Dr. Kenneth Cusi, UF is a global leader in the studies of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, conditions often associated with Type 2 diabetes.
Lastly, the Diabetes Institute has an established history of determining the roles of the immune system and genetics in Type 1 diabetes development with efforts to use blood tests for staging pre-Type 1 diabetes pioneered by Mark Atkinson, Ph.D., and Desmond Schatz, M.D. UF investigators have since established a peripheral blood sample biorepository of well over 100,000 donor samples to facilitate further research on new disease-associated biomarkers.
