News from the UMass Diabetes Center of Excellence

The first four virtual diabetes camp sessions included more than 1,500 students from 33 countries and 45 U.S. states. They represented 315 colleges around the world participating in free Zoom-based sessions. 

The 10th Diabetes Foot & Health Care Clinic for the underserved community was held at Worcester's MLK Center.  Attendees received a comprehensive health assessment, including a foot exam, blood sugar testing, lipid testing, and a BMI assessment, as well as wound care and other valuable health resources.  They were also each given sneakers, socks, and a hot meal. The first of these bi-annual multidisciplinary outreach events was held on World Diabetes Day in 2020.  They are now held every summer and in November during Diabetes Awareness Month.  

The laboratory of Jessica Spinelli, PhD, recently identified a molecule in mitochondria that helps to reroute energy production when oxygen levels drop. This discovery could provide new therapies for oxygen-starved conditions, including heart attacks & strokes, as well as cell replacement therapies.  The Spinelli lab is investigating how this new information could protect insulin-producing beta cells after transplantation. 

The laboratory of physician-scientist Jennifer Wang, MD, investigated the role of interferons in type 1 diabetes, discovering that type I interferon signaling is not the sole driver of the disease. Their newly published study tested JAK inhibitors like ruxolitinib. They found a potential preventative treatment that blocked diabetes development in their novel rat models of T1D, highlighting the complex interplay of immune factors in the disease's progression.

Breakthrough T1D Center of Excellence in New England scientists, led by David Harlan, MD, are collaborating to create a stem cell-derived beta cell replacement therapy to be invisible to the immune system and provide insulin independence for people with type 1 diabetes. The team includes 10 scientists from the Diabetes Center of Excellence at UMass Chan Medical School.

A newly published study in Nature Metabolism from the laboratory of David Guertin, PhD, contributed to understanding brown fat metabolism and could potentially lead to new approaches for managing metabolic disorders.  The research, led by graduate student Kate Korobkina, provides new insights into mitigating mitochondrial stress and the connection between dietary carbohydrates and heat production in brown fat.

The 2024 Herman G. Berkman Diabetes Clinical Innovation Fund grant was awarded to Gianna Wilkie, MD, to conduct a clinical study at UMass Memorial Medical Center of pregnant women with type 2 diabetes comparing continuous glucose monitoring to multiple daily fingersticks to check blood sugars.  It will include maternal blood glucose control, patient satisfaction, and other perinatal outcomes.

A study from the laboratory of Louis Messina, MD, published in JVS-Vascular Science, explored how hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol) can affect the growth of new blood vessels (collateral arteries), that are important for maintaining blood flow when main arteries are clogged.  This is particularly relevant for conditions including peripheral arterial disease (PAD), where clogged arteries in the legs can lead to serious complications, including limb loss. People living with type1 and type 2 diabetes are at increased risk to develop PAD.

Nate Farrington is Supervisor of the Endocrinology & Diabetes care teams, overseeing operations at the Ambulatory Care Center on the University Campus, and the newly renovated Endocrinology and Metabolic Weight Clinics downtown Worcester. His recent Six Sigma Green Belt lean project has improved efficiency by reducing prescription wait times by more than 80%.  Nate has been sharing his productivity tool with other UMass Memorial departments, and he received two grants to help further his education. 

UMass Memorial Diabetologist Madona Azar, MD, explains the connection between type 2 diabetes and liver disease. Understanding the risk of developing this common yet underrecognized condition is essential to treating it.

The laboratories of Michael Brehm, PhD, and Dale Greiner, PhD, are leading a multisite collaboration that has been approved for a four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create cutting-edge humanized mouse resources to support the efficient development of human tissue resident macrophages in disease relevant models. 

The 8th biannual Diabetes Foot & Health Care Clinic for the underserved community was held at South Middlesex Non-Profit Housing Corporation in Leominster, organized by vascular surgeon & diabetes scientist Tammy Nguyen, MD.  All attendees received a comprehensive health assessment, including a foot exam, blood sugar testing, lipid testing, and a BMI assessment, as well as wound care and other valuable health resources.  They were also each given sneakers, socks, and a hot meal. The first of these bi-annual multidisciplinary outreach clinics was on World Diabetes Day in 2020 and is now held every summer as well as in November during Diabetes Awareness Month.  

Tammy Nguyen, MD, PhD, and Silvia Corvera, MD, published a review article in the journal Nature Metabolism that discusses the role of adipose tissue (fat tissue) in the aging process. As people get older age, fat tissue undergoes changes that can influence our metabolism, immune function, and even lifespan.  Drs. Nguyen & Corvera highlight that over time fat tissue loses its ability to store and release energy efficiently. It can lead to an imbalance in energy metabolism, contributing to conditions including cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes.

Michael Brehm, PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine, The Harvey A. Shultz Chair in Diabetes, and co-director of the UMass Chan Humanized Mouse Core, was promoted to associate director of the Diabetes Center of Excellence (DCOE) at UMass Chan Medical School in March of 2024. In this role, Dr. Brehm will work alongside co-directors David Harlan, MD, and Dale Greiner, PhD, in leading our diabetes research efforts, including the production of human stem cell-derived islets in the Pappas Stem Cell Differentiation Core.

A Certified Child Life Specialist supports diabetic children and their families working with the care team to provide age appropriate support and interventions at UMass Memorial Medical Center. 

Liver disease is strongly associated with type 2 diabetes and obesity. It remains underdiagnosed and undertreated and many people living with T2D are unaware they have it.  A new process has been implemented utilizing a screening tool in the UMass Memorial diabetes clinic that analyzes clinically available data to determine patient risk of liver fibrosis.  

The foregut endoderm contributes to several organs including the thyroid, lungs, liver, and pancreas. Approaches to study it has been impeded by lack of tissue access and cellular models. A protocol to develop human pharyngeal endoderm from stem cells was published by the UMass Diabetes Center of Excellence laboratories of René Maehr, PhD and Michael Brehm, PhD at UMass Chan Medical School. 

The laboratory of vascular surgeon-scientist Tammy Nguyen, MD, PhD, developed a novel method in collaboration with Dr. Silvia Corvera’s lab to collect human stem cells directly from the bone marrow of people who underwent lower extremity amputations for non-healing wounds and grow them in her lab. Her research is examining why the immune cells of people living with diabetes behave differently than those without diabetes. In a newly published study, she identified that there are two different types of stem cell populations that are located within separate parts of bone marrow in the human leg. So far Dr. Nguyen has learned that stem cells derived from yellow/fatty marrow proliferate more and are more responsive. Currently she is asking additional questions in her lab to compare the marrow and immune cell development between people living with diabetes and those without diabetes.

A branch from the “Tree of Hippocrates” from an Oriental plane tree on the island of Kos, Greece was planted on the UMass Chan Medical School campus.  According to legend, Hippocrates of Kos, who is considered to be the father of medicine, educated his students near the tree more than 2,500 years ago. Three Diabetes Center of Excellence researchers spoke at the planting ceremony. 

John Haley, a PhD candidate in the Guertin lab, was named the 2023 Emerging Scientist in Metabolism by Weill Cornell Medicine.  He was awarded the top prize in a national competition for senior graduate students who are conducting metabolism research. Haley plans to pursue post-doctoral training focusing on the intersection of metabolism and signaling.

Shrewsbury High School Chemistry teacher Jennifer Cuddy spent a second summer in the Diabetes Center of Excellence research laboratories thanks to an American Association of Immunologists High School Teachers Program in Immunology Award.  She participated in studies investigating the effects of human immune cells on stem cell-derived pancreatic islets. The program provided Ms. Cuddy with new skills that she can incorporate into her high school classroom.  

The UMass Memorial adult diabetes clinic launched a Young Adult Clinic to help 18 to 26 year-olds who are struggling with any aspect of living with type 1 of type 2 diabetes. The care team includes an Endocrinologist, Nurse Practitioner and Diabetes Educator who explore the participant’s unique issues and create personalized care plans to help them achieve their health goals. Resources and peer to peer communication is included in the program.

Sam Redick, PhD, leads the effort to develop and grow stem cell-derived islets at the UMass Chan Diabetes Center of Excellence for various collaborative research projects, including genetically engineering them to become undetected by the immune system. Transplanting stem cell-derived islets into a person with type 1 diabetes, without them requiring toxic immunosuppressive therapy, would be a life-changing curative therapy.  That is the core focus of the Breakthrough T1D Center of Excellence in New England, led by Dr. David Harlan.