Griffin Rodgers, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), was a special guest during the 10th annual NIDDK Medical Student Research Symposium held earlier this month on the Vanderbilt University campus.

A drug used to treat diabetes may point to new therapies for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis — inflammation and obstruction of the lungs’ small airways. A multi-disciplinary team of Vanderbilt investigators has demonstrated that liraglutide reduces the inflammatory response to RSV infection in a mouse model of the disease.

Non-exercise physical activity has a measurable energy expenditure, which goes down when animals engage in voluntary exercise, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

Vanderbilt investigators and colleagues around the country have made a major discovery that could lead to better ways to treat type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have discovered how insulin crosses the capillary endothelium to exit blood vessels and stimulate skeletal muscle cells — a major finding that may lead to new ways to reverse insulin resistance, a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.

Research achievement was recognized recently during Diabetes Day at the Student Life Center. Among those honored were (beginning second from left) Bryan Gitschlag, Danielle Dean, PhD, Ian Williams, Caroline Presley, MD, and Suzanne Starr. Award winners are flanked by Tom Elasy, MD, MPH, (left) and Alvin Powers, MD. Diabetes Day was sponsored by the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center and the Vanderbilt Center for Diabetes Translation Research and supported by the National Institutes of Health.

When 32-year-old Dana Shaw was diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during her pregnancy with her first child, she was happy to learn she could meet with a physician about the condition through video conferencing rather than taking time off from work for an appointment.