Dean identified a liver-alpha cell axis (LACA), a crosstalk between liver glucagon signaling and alpha cell sensing of amino acids.

Today, the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center includes 140 faculty members from 15 departments and three colleges or schools at Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical College who conduct basic, clinical and translational research on the cause, prevention, treatment and complications of diabetes and obesity.

The study findings, published in the journal Diabetes Care, suggest that pancreas imaging can have a benefit in tracking disease development and recruitment for preventive and therapeutic trials.

A comprehensive study that integrates multiple analytic approaches has linked a regulatory gene network and functional defects in insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells to Type 2 diabetes.

Alvin C. Powers, MD, has announced plans to step down effective July 1, 2024, as director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center, director of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center, and chief of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Vanderbilt's Rafael Arrojo e Drigo, PhD, recently received the inaugural Robert L. Sorenson Young Investigator Award from the Midwest Islet Club (MIC) in recognition of his research excellence and innovation in the field of islet research.

Vanderbilt Diabetes Day, an annual event hosted by the now-named Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC). The event spotlights the work of researchers, and this year also celebrated the 50-year anniversary of the DRTC.