Daryl Granner, M.D., professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, emeritus, at Vanderbilt, has been recognized for outstanding achievements in diabetes research and training by the American Diabetes Association.
Granner, who led and expanded the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC) during much of the 1990s, is the recipient of the association’s 2017 Albert Renold Award, named for the pioneering diabetes researcher who died in 1988.
He will receive the award in San Diego next week during the association’s 77th Scientific Sessions, the world’s largest scientific meeting focused on diabetes research, prevention and care.
“Dr. Granner’s contributions to the mentorship and the development of future diabetes researchers has helped to ensure that bright young minds will continue to make headway in improving the lives of people with diabetes,” said Alvin Powers, M.D., director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, in a prepared statement.
Powers, the Joe C. Davis Professor of Biomedical Science, is serving this year as the association’s president of Medicine and Science.
Granner’s laboratory made significant contributions to understanding how insulin regulates glucose metabolism. Many of his trainees have become tenured faculty members and researchers in diabetes and metabolism.
He founded and directed training programs in molecular endocrinology sponsored by the National Institutes of Health at the University of Iowa and Vanderbilt that have trained more than 120 students and fellows.
Under Granner’s leadership, the Vanderbilt Medical Scientist Training Program for medical and graduate students tripled in size. He consolidated several entities into the comprehensive Vanderbilt Diabetes Center and was one of the founders of a first-of-its-kind mouse metabolic phenotyping core.
These programs and resources have expanded the reach of diabetes research and care around the globe, association officials said in their announcement. The 2017 Albert Renold Award is supported by an unrestricted grant from Merck.
