Diabetes
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Eating breakfast affects how your body responds to lunch—and a hormone is to blame
Blood sugar spikes after lunch aren’t necessarily all about what you just ate—what you had for breakfast might have made a difference. Vanderbilt researchers are analyzing what people eat, and when, and how that affects liver function and blood sugar and insulin levels throughout the day. This may help clinicians better design individual treatments for patients with diabetes. Read MoreJune 30, 2026
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New research points to cell subtypes that increase risk of diabetes
Three Vanderbilt faculty members are diving into a "chicken-and-egg" problem of type 2 diabetes: Does the disease change beta-cell subtypes? Or do changes in the cells cause diabetes? Guoqiang Gu, Emily Hodges and Ken Lau have come up with a new method of studying the subtypes that can track them through different stages instead of just once when they're fully developed. "Thanks to this and other research, it may be possible to one day create a diet supplement for pregnancy that could reduce the risk of diabetes for babies," Gu said. Read MoreAugust 7, 2025
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NIH training program in engineering and diabetes competitively renewed for another five years
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has renewed a five-year grant through the NIH’s flagship T32 institutional training grant program. T32 grants provide funding to support students and postdoctoral trainees working in focused areas of research that advance the NIH mission. Read MoreJuly 29, 2024
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Teams to create one-stop resource for human pancreatic data to foster diabetes research
Leading investigators in diabetes, pancreas and islet biology, and computational biology have received $12.5 million in two five-year awards from the National Institutes of Health to create the world’s first, integrated knowledge base of human-derived tissue- and cellular-level pancreatic information to support innovative, collaborative and reproducible research. Read MoreMarch 28, 2024
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Study links gene network and pancreatic beta cell defects to Type 2 diabetes
A comprehensive study that integrates multiple analytic approaches has linked a regulatory gene network and functional defects in insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells to Type 2 diabetes. Read MoreDecember 4, 2023
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Pancreas “crosstalk” may influence course of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
In the largest study of its kind, researchers at Vanderbilt have identified unexpected alterations in the exocrine tissues of the pancreas that occur in the two major forms of diabetes, and with aging and obesity. Read MoreNovember 1, 2023
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Releasing a brake that drives obesity and diabetes
Vanderbilt researchers have uncovered a potential new way to help curb the rapidly rising worldwide prevalence of metabolic disorders, including obesity and diabetes. Read MoreSeptember 6, 2023
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VUMC receives $28 million to lead national study of COVID-diabetes link
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have received a four-year, $28 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to study the relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes. Read MoreAugust 2, 2023
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Diabetes drugs associated with fewer adverse cardiac events in older veterans: study
Vanderbilt research finds that GLP1 receptor agonists — a class of diabetes medications — are associated with fewer major adverse cardiovascular events than another type of diabetes drug (DPP4 inhibitors) in older veterans with no prior heart disease. Read MoreMay 8, 2023
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Study sheds light on the dark side of obesity
Vanderbilt research that promotes the anti-inflammatory pathway in macrophages could also reduce some of the bad side effects of obesity. Read MoreMay 12, 2022