News & Events

David Cummings, MD, is one of three experts invited to comment on bariatric surgery and cardiovascular disease in Nature Medicine. In “At the heart of the benefits of bariatric surgery” Dr. Cummings discusses the influence of the surgery on weight loss, metabolic disorders, and CV disease and calls for clinical guidelines. He is professor of medicine

Dr. Michael Schwartz (MTE) has received the 2012 Solomon A. Berson Distinguished Lectureship Award from the American Physiological Society Endocrinology and Metabolism Section. He was honored for outstanding contributions to his field at the Society’s Experimental Biology Meeting in April 2012. Dr. Schwartz is Professor of Medicine, Director of the UW Medicine Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence and the Robert H. Williams Endowed Chair in Medicine.

Drs. Francis Kim, MD, and Savitha Subramanian, MD, were elected to the Western Society for Clinical Investigation (WSCI). The Western Society for Clinical Investigation (WSCI) has been around for more than 50 years and has over 300 active members and 50 emeritus members from institutions across the West.  The WSCI’s goal is to enhance the

Dr. Alan Chait, professor and head of the division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition, has been selected as the 2013 Western Society of Clinical Investigation (WSCI) Mayo Soley Award winner. The Mayo Soley award is given to a “senior investigator in recognition of lifetime achievement in the area of scientific endeavor and training of junior investigators.”

Dr. Vincenzo Cirulli and Dr. Laura Crisa (Department of Medicine), together with Dr. Marta Scatena (Department of Bioengineering) have been awarded a Research Award totaling $1,000,000 from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation entitled “Decoding microenvironmental signals promoting beta cell differentiation”. The objective of this multi-Investigator research effort is to reconstruct an in vitro micro-environmental niche that mimics in vivo-like conditions capable of eliciting stem cell maturation toward the pancreatic islet cell lineage.

Dr. Michael Schwartz (MTE) has received a 5-year, $4 million award from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund (LSDF) under its 2010 Program Grant Competition. The grant will support the Diabetes-Stem Cell Program (DSCP), a multi-institutional collaborative effort whose overarching goal is to unite expertise in stem cell biology with that in developmental biology of pancreatic beta cells, basic and clinical aspects of diabetes, implantation biology, and immunology in a joint scientific endeavor.

Dr. Michael Schwartz (MTE) has been awarded an American Diabetes Association Mentor-Based Postdoctoral Fellowship Award for his application entitled “Hypothalamic Mechanisms in the Pathogenesis of Obesity and Diabetes” This ADA Program supports the training of scientists in an environment most conducive to beginning a career in diabetes research. The 4-year award is given to established and active investigators in diabetes research for the annual stipend support of a postdoctoral fellow to work closely with the mentor.

JAY HEINECKE (MTE) is the author of an editorial in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine, “HDL and Cardiovascular-Disease Risk — Time for a New Approach?” He discusses the function of HDL and a paper in the same issue, Khera et al. Dr. Heinecke is a professor of medicine and a member of the

Dr. Savitha Subramanian (MTE) is the recipient of the WAFMR Outstanding Investigator Award for the 2011 Western Regional Meeting to be held January 26-29, 2011 in Carmel, California. This award is given to an investigator who has demonstrated an outstanding career in scientific investigation evidenced by the quality of their submitted scientific abstract and their initial career contributions to their scientific field, based on an outstanding track record of high quality publications and grant funding.

Dr. Vincenzo Cirulli (MTE) has been awarded a $20,000 equipment grant from the Seattle Foundation.  The purpose of this grant is to purchase a FACSCalibur 4-color flow cytometer system for the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence.  This grant is paid from the Arthur W. Wittig Area of Interest Fund, Dr. David H. Houston Medical