Auburn will host its first Boshell Diabetes Research Day tomorrow, March 14 at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center.
Several prominent diabetes researchers from across the nation and from universities such as Vanderbilt, University of Georgia and University of Alabama at Birmingham will attend, along with 20 researchers from Auburn.
“The program is focusing on the causes of diabetes and how obesity relates to diabetes,” said Kevin Huggins, assistant professor in the department of nutrition and food science. “That will be the theme of the meeting.”
According to Diabetes.org, diabetes results when the body cannot produce enough insulin, a hormone that converts sugars, starches and other foods into energy, or cannot use it properly.
If left untreated, diabetes can result in blindness, kidney failure, stroke or increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
It is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States.
The program features three speakers who are top diabetes researchers in the nation.
“Pathophysiology of Adipose Tissue and Beta Cells in Obesity and Diabetes” will be presented by keynote speaker Philipp E. Scherer, director of Touchstone Diabetes Center of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, at 10 a.m.
Graduate students will present oral and poster presentations concerning diabetes after Alyssa Hasty, assistant professor in the department of molecular physiology and biophysics at Vanderbilt University presents “Dietary and Plasma Lipids: Impact on Adipose Tissue Inflammation” at 1 p.m.
A banquet with an awards ceremony for the presentations will highlight Philip Wood, director of the division of genomics at UAB, who will speak on
“Understanding Obesity-Related Diseases: A Harbinger of Type 2 Diabetes” at 6:30 p.m.
Auburn’s Boshell Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases Research Program was established in 2003 to increase opportunities of diabetes research at Auburn.
Twenty-one faculty members are involved in the program.
It was created by the Diabetes Trust Fund.
“Incidence of diabetes and obesity is high in Alabama, one of the highest in the nation,” said Robert Judd, the Boshell chair in diabetes and metabolic diseases at the College of Veterinary Medicine. “Auburn plays a vital role in basic science research into the cause and treatment of diabetes.”
It was founded in memory of Buris R. Boshell, a 1947 Auburn graduate in agriculture.
Its mission is to provide a better life for those with diabetes through research of its causes and its treatments.
