From left, Daniel Polley, Stephen Camarata, Christoph Schreiner and Beverly Wright at the Kennedy Center’s recent conference.
Photo by Melanie May
Magnuson to serve on NIDDK advisory council
Mark Magnuson, M.D., has been invited to serve on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. He began his four-year term on Nov. 1.
The 18-member council advises the NIDDK about its research portfolio and considers broad issues of science policy. An important role of the council is to provide second-level peer review of grant applications that have been scored by scientific review groups.
“I am very pleased to be able to serve both the NIDDK and the scientific community in this manner,” said Magnuson, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Stem Cell Biology.
Magnuson is a leader of the Beta Cell Biology Consortium, an NIDDK-supported international effort to convert stem cells to insulin-producing beta cells, with the ultimate goal of using these cells therapeutically in the treatment of diabetes. He has been chair of the steering committee since the formation of the consortium in 2001, and he is currently the principal investigator of both the Coordinating Center for the BCBC, housed at Vanderbilt, and one of the cornerstone scientific program projects.
Magnuson is the Earl W. Sutherland Jr. Professor of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics.