Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity

Dr Rebecca Conway

Section: Diabetes Pathophysiology and Complications AND Psychosocial Aspects of Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity AND Screening and Detection for Diabetes

Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

Dr. Rebecca Baqiyyah Conway is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. She obtained her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on adiposity as a risk factor for late complications of type 1 diabetes. Her research was the first to document the long terms trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in persons with type 1 diabetes. She is a diabetes epidemiologist with research interests that focuses on risk factors for late complications of diabetes, including iron metabolism, hemoglobin and HbA1c, advanced glycation end products, environmental toxicants, as well as diabetes surveillance, and racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes and its complications.

Dr Halis Kaan Akturk

Section: Technology, Treatments and Therapeutics

Medicine and Pediatrics, Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

Dr. Akturk is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, University of Colorado. His research is focused on improving glycemic control with advanced diabetes technologies and therapeutics in people with type 1 diabetes. He has been the PI in many clinical trials assessing diabetes technologies and therapeutics such as hybrid closed loop pumps and continuous glucose monitors. He has been a part of the main clinical studies of Medtronic 780G HCL, Dexcom G7 CGM, Eversense E3 CGM, insulin lispro-aabc, inhaled insulin and adjunctive therapies in development such as glucagon receptor antagonists.

He is the recipient of American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) 2024 Rising Star Award. He is currently serving as the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Annual Scientific Meetings Planning Committee Chair for Diabetes Technology for 2024-2026. He served as the Communications Director of the American Diabetes Association, Diabetes Technology Interest Group between 2020-2024 and represents Barbara Davis Center Adult Clinic in the T1D Exchange Quality Improvement Initiative and serves as the Publication Committee Chair. He is the founder and director of Diabetes Dialog, an annual hands-on diabetes technology workshop for nationwide endocrinology fellows. He published over 100 peer reviewed articles and has been a reviewer in many reputable diabetes and diabetes technology journals. He has been an invited speaker for type 1 diabetes and diabetes technologies in many national and international conferences.

His other research interests include immune checkpoint inhibitor (cancer immunotherapy) induced type 1 diabetes and investigating the effects of cannabis use in type 1 diabetes. He has been recognised and won awards such as the AACE Rising Star Award 2024, the ADA Scientific Meetings Planning Committee Chair for Diabetes Technology 2024-2026, the ADA Diabetes Technology Professional Interest Group Communications Director 2020-2024, T1D Exchange Publication Committee Chair 2024-2026, and Diabetes Dialog, Founder and Program Director 2018-Present. 

His main research interests include:

1. Advanced Diabetes Technologies and Therapeutics: Dr. Akturk was involved as a PI and sub-PI in several artificial pancreas, hybrid-closed loop, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) studies, and faster insulins. To highlight some of his recent contributions last year; he was the PI for PROMISE, STAT, PRONTO, REMD, INHALE-3 studies investigated 6-month implantable CGM, inhaled insulin, faster bolus insulin, and adjunctive therapies in type 1 diabetes, respectively. He described a new method to easily locate implanted glucose sensors using near-infrared light technology to facilitate removal.

2. Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Induced Type 1 Diabetes: Cancer immunotherapies are revolutionary treatments, but they have autoimmune adverse effects. Dr. Akturk identified the similarities and differences between cancer immunotherapy induced and childhood-onset type 1 diabetes and one of the leading researchers in this field.

3. Cannabis use in type 1 diabetes: Dr. Akturk described a new syndrome, Hyperglycemic Ketosis due to Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome in cannabis users with type 1 diabetes that mimic diabetic ketoacidosis and presents with recurrent emergency department visits due to nausea and vomiting.

4. Use of GLP1, GLP/GIP analogs in type 1 diabetes: Dr. Akturk's team has published first and largest cohort of GLP1, GLP/GIP analog use in type 1 diabetes.

Dr Pablo Corral

Section: Metabolomics and Lipidomics

Pharmacology & Research Department, School of Medicine, FASTA University, Mar del Plata, Argentina

Dr. Pablo Corral is an Internal Medicine and Lipid Specialist, serving as Coordinator of the Lipids and Atherosclerosis Department at the ICM Institute in Mar del Plata, Argentina. He is also a Full Professor of Pharmacology at FASTA University, School of Medicine, in Mar del Plata. Additionally, he is the Past President of the Argentine Lipid Society (2022–2024) and has received numerous accolades, including the Arturo Allió Award for Best Research (2022).

Dr. Corral's primary research focus includes Lipids, Atherosclerosis, and Cardiovascular Disease prevention, with a particular emphasis on Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Residual Risk, and genetic dyslipidemias. He has led and participated in numerous clinical trials as Principal Investigator related to Atherosclerosis and Lipids, including the COLCOVID Trial (published in JAMA, 2022), PREPARE-IT I & II, and the Lp(a)HORIZON Study. He is also the National Lead Investigator for the CORAL-REEF Trial (MK-0616) and the EAS FH Studies Collaboration (FHSC) in Argentina.

Dr. Corral has published over 50 manuscripts in lipidology and atherosclerosis, with contributions to key guidelines such as the Argentine National Lipid Guidelines (2019), PCSK9 Inhibitor Guidelines (2018), and Familial Hypercholesterolemia Textbooks for the IberoAmerican FH Network. He has also co-authored several expert consensus documents on cardiovascular prevention.

He is an active member of leading scientific societies, including the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS), International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS), FH Foundation, and the IberoAmerican FH Network. Dr. Corral frequently reviews for journals such as Atherosclerosis and the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, and serves as an editor for the Journal of Lipid and Atherosclerosis (JLA) and the Argentine Lipid Society Journal.

With over 250 lectures delivered at national and international conferences, Dr. Corral is a prominent voice in the field. He also chaired the 2024 European Atherosclerosis Society Congress.

Dr Mark D. DeBoer

Section: Diabetes in Youth

Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Mark DeBoer, MD, is a pediatric endocrinologist and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia. He divides his time between medical research, clinical practice, and teaching medical students and pediatric residents. His research interests include 1) assessing long-term risks related to the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adolescents and adults and 2) working with the UVa Center for Diabetes Technology in testing new technologies to help improve care of children and adults with Type 1 diabetes.

Dr. DeBoer and Dr. Matthew Gurka at UVa formulated and validated a MetS severity z-score, which can be calculated from individual MetS component values and is associated with future risk for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease and is able to track successful intervention by lifestyle or treatment medications.

Dr Hillary Keenan

Section: Epidemiology and Public Health

Senior Director, Global Evidence and Outcomes, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA, USA

Hillary Keenan, Ph.D., M.S. is an epidemiologist who spent two decades studying the effects of dysglycemia and vascular dysfunction in the population. Her work has focused on using translational approaches to better understand disease patterns and identify mechanism specific targets. She gained her MS in epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Branch of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on social health issues.

Dr. Keenan began her career in genetic epidemiology and translational medicine at the University of Pittsburgh while earning her doctorate in molecular epidemiology. As a post- doctoral fellow, she continued her work in genetics and began her work identifying both endogenous and lifestyle factors which protect from complications associated with hyperglycemia. A significant portion of this work was done examining individuals who have lived 50 or more years with type 1 diabetes at the Joslin Diabetes Center where she remained on faculty for 14 years before joining industry. Currently, she works to demonstrate the relative effectiveness of new therapies and accelerating access for patients.

Prof. Dr. Ernesto Maddaloni

Section: Diabetes Prevention, Care and Management

Department of Experimental Medicine, Unit of Diabetes, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Dr Maddaloni gained his MD, clinical specialty in Endocrinology and Diabetes and PhD in “Integrated Biomedical Sciences and Bioethics” at Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome. He has joined the Vascular Cell Biology Section of the Joslin Diabetes Center (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA) for a Research Fellowship in 2014. Back in Italy, since 2018 he has been employed at the Department of Experimental Medicine, Unit of Diabetes, Sapienza University of Rome, where he is currently Associate Professor of Endocrinology and Diabetes. He also holds a position as Research Associate at the Diabetes Trial Unit, University of Oxford, UK, which he joined in in 2017 as a mentee of the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) Future Leaders Mentorship Program.
Dr Maddaloni actively pursue studies on clinical diabetes, cardiovascular outcomes and novel diabetes complications. His research interests focus on the study of adults with autoimmune diabetes and the interplay between vascular complications, bone health and autoimmunity. After the Sars-CoV2 infection outbreak, he has contributed also with original articles evaluating the strict relationship between diabetes and related comorbidities with Covid-19.
Dr Maddaloni has been a study investigator and coordinator for several national and international clinical trials and has published as lead author in several top-ranked peer-reviewed international medical journals.
His scientific achievements have been recognized with several awards, including the 2015 Albert Renold Fellowship from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes, the 2017 (under 32) and 2021 (under 35) Young Investigator Awards from the Italian Society of Endocrinology (SIE), the 2017 Early Investigator Award from the Endocrine Society (USA) and the 2020 Young (under 35) Investigator Award and the Alcmeone award from the Italian Society of Diabetes (SID).

Dr Donald McClain

Section: Obesity

Professor Emeritus, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Internal Medicine (Winston-Salem), Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

Don McClain MD, PhD is the Johnston Professor of Diabetes Research in the Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine; Director of the NIH-funded North Carolina Diabetes Research Center; and serves part time as a Staff Physician/Investigator at the Salisbury VA Medical Center. He received his medical degree and PhD from the Rockefeller/Cornell MD/PhD program. He received training in Internal Medicine at Stanford and Endocrinology at UCSD. He has held faculty positions at UCSD, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Utah, and their associated VA Medical Centers, before coming to North Carolina in 2014.

Dr. McClain’s research relates to type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity, from molecular biology, animal models, first-in-human studies, to investigator-initiated clinical trials based on that work. His current research focuses on the role of dietary iron in weight and appetite regulation and in the pathogenesis and treatment of diabetes.

Professor Melissa Olfert

Section: Nutrition, Exercise and Lifestyle

School of Agriculture and Food Systems, Department of Human Nutrition and Food, West Virginia University, WV, USA

Dr. Olfert is a chronic disease prevention researcher focusing on modifiable risk factors for the prevention, management and treatment of chronic diseases utilizing novel approaches to change lifestyle behaviors in individuals and communities in underrepresented populations. As a Professor of Human Nutrition and Foods, in the School of Agriculture and Food Systems in the Department of Human Nutrition and Food at West Virginia University, her passion is to train the next generations of lifestyle interventionists. Dr. Olfert has a broad background in public health, with specific training and expertise in nutrition, as a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), and clinical exercise physiologist, she brings a wholistic approach to research targeting specific lifecycle stages from conception, pregnancy, infant, and toddler, school age, adolescent, and young adulthood. Chronic diseases including metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome are specifically targeted.
As PI and co-investigator on several multi-site/state USDA, NIH funded grants, she has laid the groundwork for novel research by developing effective measures of nutrition and food preparation, nutrition education, mental health/disordered behaviors, and other psychosocial factors relevant to barriers to ‘making the healthy choice the easy choice to prevent chronic disease’. Working with rural and urban communities by establishing strong ties with community providers that make research partnerships strong and sustainable, she has continued to have successful recruitment/enrollment and track participants over time. The need for essential research approaches with a diverse, collaborative team of experts who represent various institutions, populations, and communities is a mainstay in her inclusive approach to building collaborative teams. In light of these large research teams, Dr. Olfert has lead and contributed to many large multi-site and multi-state projects which have resulted in peer-reviewed publications from each project (currently ~135 publications).

Professor Jae Woong Sull

Section: Metabolic Disorders and Complications

Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, School of Health Sciences, Eulji University, Seongnam, Korea

Dr. Jae Woong Sull is a Professor at Eulji University in South Korea. He obtained both his Ph.D. degree in Genetic Epidemiology and Master of Health Science degree in Epidemiology from Yonsei University in Korea. He was also trained as a postdoctoral fellow in genetic epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in USA.

He is the recipient of the Korean Society of Epidemiology 2009 Young Epidemiologist Award. His research focuses on the gene environmental interaction for chronic diseases. He has worked on a variety of common diseases (including metabolic syndrome, cancer, and cardiovascular disease) where both genes and environmental risk factors contribute to disease etiology.

Professor Liang Wang

Section: Obesity

Public Health, Marshall University, WV, USA

Dr. Liang Wang is currently Founding Director of Marshall Global Health Institute and Tenured Full Professor of Public Health at Marshall University, West Virginia, USA. Previously, Dr. Wang was Director and Tenured Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Baylor University, Texas, USA. Dr. Wang was elected as a Fellow to American College of Epidemiology (USA), The Obesity Society (USA), and Royal Society for Public Health (UK). He has been Visiting Scientist at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Visiting Scholar at UNC Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. His research focuses on obesity, nutrition epidemiology, health education and promotion, etc. Dr. Wang has published 170 peer-reviewed papers (e.g., JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Network Open, Diabetes Care, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal, International Journal of Epidemiology, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and American Journal of Epidemiology), and several book chapters (e.g., International Encyclopedia of Public Health, Prevention and Control of Obesity in China, A Collection of Exemplary Health Education and Promotion Cases in China, and Health Literacy: surveillance and evaluation guide). He has been a PI and Co-I on multiple grants (e.g., NIH, PCORI). He serves the Associate Editor of Nutritional Journal, Obesity Section Editor of Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity, and Guest/Topic Editor of Nutrients. Dr. Wang has been serving as President of China Health Policy and Management Society, Founding President of the International Chinese Nutrition Young Scholar Network, Director of Strategic Development and Enhancement Committee of North America Chinese Association for Nutrition, etc.