News and Events

Irene Amalaraj (Sims Lab)

Conference Presentations & Award

• ADA Scientific Sessions — Chicago, IL
  • Oral Presentation: STAT-Dependent Beta-Cell EV PD-L1 Shuttling Abrogates CD4+ T-Cell Activation in Type 1 Diabetes
• Midwest Islet Club (MIC) — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Role of JAK-STAT Signaling Pathway in Beta-Cell EV PD-L1 Shuttling and Regulation
• CDMD Symposium — Indianapolis, IN
  Poster Presentation & Poster Presentation Award: Role of JAK-STAT Signaling Pathway in Beta-Cell EV PD-L1 Shuttling and Regulation

Avinil Das Sharma (Spaeth Lab)

Conference Presentations & Awards

• Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) Annual Scientific Meeting - Clearwater, Florida
  • Poster Presentation
• Midwest Islet Club (MIC) - Indianapolis, IN
  • Oral Presentation & Award: Delineating the Role of CHD4 in Pancreatic Islet Development
• CDMD Symposium - Indianapolis, IN
  • Oral Presentation & Best Oral Presentation Award
• Wells Center Retreat - Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation
• European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) — Vienna, Austria
  • Abstract published in Diabetologia & Oral Presentation & EASD Travel Grant Award

Linda DiMeglio, MD, MPH

Awards

• Indiana CTSI Mentoring Excellence Award in Clinical & Translational Research
• W!LD Advancing Women’s Leadership in Diabetes “Hot Breakfast, Hot Topics” ADA Woman of Honor Award
• Breakthrough T1D 2025 Indiana/Kentucky Hope Gala Honoree

Invited Moderator Roles

• Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) Annual Meeting — Indianapolis, IN
  • Session Moderator: Moving the Needle: Translating Discoveries
• ADA 85th Scientific Sessions — Chicago, IL
  • Session Chair: Diabetes in Children — Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes — Decoding the Disease and Transforming Care
• 18th International Conference on Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes — Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Session Chair: Adaptive Trials in the Post-Teplizumab Era: To Placebo or Not to Placebo

Invited Lectures

• Indiana CTSI Grant Writing Open Office Hours Series
  • Writing a Career Development Award
• Breakthrough T1D Webinar
  • Monitoring Individuals in Early Stage 1 T1D
• Stanford University, Pediatric Endocrine Division Meeting
  • How to Say “No” so You Can Say “Yes”
• Stanford University, Endocrine Grand Rounds
  • Type 1 Diabetes Prevention: Progress and Pitfalls
• Children with Diabetes Health Care Provider Luncheon, ISPAD — Montreal, Canada
  • Afrezza in Pediatric Diabetes: Where Does Inhaled Insulin Fit
• ISPAD — Montreal, Canada
  • Preserving β-cell Function in Stage 3 Diabetes
• 16th Brazilian Pediatric Congress of Endocrinology and Metabolism — Recife, Brazil
  • Promises and Progress: Paths Toward Lasting Insulin Independence for Type 1 Diabetes

Carmella Evans-Molina, MD, PhD

Invited Lectures

• University of Helsinki — Helsinki, Finland
  • Opposing Thesis Defense for Hossam Montaser
• University of Minnesota Diabetes Day
  • Featured Speaker: “The Many Faces of Type 1 Diabetes: Understanding Cell and Tissue Specific Contributions to Disease Pathogenesis”
• TaMADOR Symposium, University of Washington
  • Biomarkers in Clinical Diabetes Research
• European Islet Study Group —  Malmo, Sweden
  • Organelle Calcium Gradients at the Nexus of Type 1 Diabetes Pathogenesis
• Type 1 Diabetes 2025 Islet Cells in Type 1 Diabetes Workshop — Chicago, IL
  • Slow Progressors: Who are They and Why are Their Beta Cells Protected?
• Excalibur Medical Education, PriMed — Philadelphia, PA
  • The Dangers of TIDM Misdiagnosis and Case Study 2
• University of Chicago Noncoding RNA Symposium 2025 — Chicago, IL
  • β Cell microRNAs Function as Molecular Hubs of Type 1 Diabetes Pathogenesis and as Biomarkers of Diabetes Risk
• Tans-scale Imaging and Integrated Islet Biology Symposium — Beijing, China
  • The Ailing β Cell in Diabetes: Insights from a Trip to the ‘ER’
• European Association for the Study of Diabetes, 61st Annual Meeting —Vienna, Austria 
  • Is It Just the Islets?
• SANOFI Bridge at EASD — Vienna, Austria
  • Missed Signals-When T1D Goes Unrecognized
• INNODIA at EASD – The Diagnostic INNODIA Symposium — Vienna, Austria
  • Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet
• 12th Helmholtz Diabetes Conference — Munich, Germany
  • The many faces of type 1 diabetes:  understanding cell and tissue specific contributions to disease pathogenesis
• Breakthrough T1D and Sanofi Beta Cell Stress and Survival in Type 1 Diabetes Workshop & Advisory Board — Paris, France
  • Cytokine-Induced Stress and Inflammation
• Levine-Arthur Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium — Pasadena, CA
  • The many faces of type 1 diabetes: understanding cell and tissue specific contributions to disease pathogenesis

Yann Gibert, PhD & Madelyn Logan (Gibert Lab)

Conference Presentation

• Zebrafish Disease Model Society Meeting — Boston, MA
  • Oral Presentation: Bilirubin Mitigates Fetal Hyperglycemia-Induced Lipogenesis and Insulin Resistance via PPARα Activation
  • Additional: Yann Gibert chaired the GI-Metabolism Research Interest Group session

Michael Kalwat, PhD

Conference Presentations

• 17th Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) Meeting — Clearwater Beach, FL
  • Poster Presentation: Leveraging Transcriptomics to Identify Stress Sensitivity and Resilience Genes in β-cells
• Human Islet Research Network  (HIRN) Conference — Washington, DC
  • Poster Presentation: Leveraging Transcriptomics to Identify Stress Sensitivity and Resilience Genes in β-cells
• Midwest Islet Club (MIC) — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Mechanisms of feedback control of insulin secretion in β-cells 
• Midwest Islet Club (MIC) — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Using congenital hyperinsulinism models to identify novel therapeutics that suppress insulin secretion

Rola Kwayess, MD

Conference Presentation

• American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) — Seattle, WA
  • Oral Abstract Presentation: Determinants of Bone Mineral Density in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes

Amelia Linnemann, PhD

Invited Lectures

• Islet Workshop — Alberta, British Columbia
  • Keynote Speaker: To Eat or Be Eaten: Beta Cell Autophagy in Type 1 diabetes
• Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) Annual Meeting
  • Defective Islet Autophagy as a Contributor to Beta Cell Immunogenicity
• Diabetes & Obesity Research Institute Seminar— University of Southern California
• Diabetes Research Centre Seminar — Montreal Diabetes Research Centre
• Rachmiel Levine-Arthur Riggs Diabetes Research Symposium
  • When Cleanup Fails: Autophagy Breakdown and Beta Cell Vulnerability in T1D

Patrice Mimche, PhD

Conference Presentation

• 9th Annual MASH Drug Development Summit — Boston, MA
  • Speaker: EPHB2 Deficiency Suppresses Liver Fibrosis in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis

Nuria Morral, PhD

Conference Presentation

• Gordon Research Conference - Genome Architecture in Cell Fate and Disease — Ventura, CA
  • Poster Presentation: Histone H3K9me3 is associated with the establishment of sex-specific liver functions

Snehasish Nag, PhD (Spaeth Lab)

Conference Presentations & Award

• European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) — Vienna, Austria
  • Oral Presentation & International Travel Grant Award: Decoding CHD5: unveiling its role in pancreatic beta cell health and function
• Midwest Islet Club (MIC) — Indianapolis, IN
  • Oral Presentation: Decoding CHD5: unveiling its role in pancreatic beta cell health and function

Jon D. Piganelli, PhD

Award

• Postdoctoral Mentoring Award

Chaitra Rao, PhD (Sims Lab)

Conference Presentations & Award

• Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) Annual Scientific Meeting — Clearwater Beach, FL
  • Oral talk & nPOD most innovative idea challenge finalist: Heterogeneity of β Cell extracellular vesicles in T1D: PD-L1 and HLA class I mediated immunomodulation
• Midwest Islet Club (MIC) — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Heterogeneity of β Cell extracellular vesicles in T1D: PD-L1 and HLA class I mediated immunomodulation
• Levine-Riggs Diabetes Symposium — Los Angeles, CA
  • Oral Talk & Scientific Achievement Award: Longitudinal Circulating miRNA Profiling in Children with T1D Treated with Verapamil (Clver Study)
• HIRN Investigator Meeting — Virtual
  • Oral Talk: Interferon-alpha Drives Heterogeneous PD-L1 and HLA Class I Cargo Presence on Beta Cell Extracellular Vesicles

Jiameng Sun (DeBosch Lab)

Conference Presentation & Award

• ENDO 2025 — San Francisco, CA
  • Oral Presentation & Outstanding Abstract Award: Hepatocyte Period 1 Prevents Diet-Induced Obesity Through Inhibiting PP2A Independent of the Core Circadian Clock

Wenting Wu, PhD

Conference Presentations & Seminars

• Midwest Islet Club (MIC) — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Single-Cell Analysis Reveals Altered Natural Killer Cell Subsets and Their Cytotoxic Role in Early-Onset Type 1 Diabetes
• International Conference on Intelligent Biology and Medicine (ICIBM) — Columbus, OH
  • Oral Presentation: Integrated Multi-Omics Study in Early Onset of Type 1 Diabetes.
  • Poster Presentation: RNA Splicing Events in Circulation Distinguish Individuals with and without New-onset Type 1 Diabetes
  • Poster Presentation: Multimodal Single-Cell and Computational Deconvolution Analysis Uncovers Altered Immune Cell Subsets and Their Role in Early-Onset Type 1 Diabetes
• CDMD Symposium — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Single-Cell Profiling Reveals Altered Natural Killer Cell Subsets and Their Cytotoxic Role in Early-Onset Type 1 Diabetes
• MMGE Symposium — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Multimodal Single-Cell and Computational Deconvolution Analysis Uncovers Altered Natural Killer Cell Subsets and Their Role in Early-Onset Type 1 Diabetes
• CDMD Enrichment Series Seminar — Indianapolis, IN
  • Speaker: Leveraging Multi-Omics and Computational Data Analytics to Advance Diabetes and Metabolic Research
• Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (CCBB) Annual Retreat — Indianapolis, IN
  • Poster Presentation: Multimodal Single-Cell and Computational Deconvolution Analysis Uncovers Altered Natural Killer (NK) Cell Subsets and Their Role in Early-Onset Type 1 Diabetes
• HIRN Annual Meeting — Virtual
  • Oral Presentation: T1D Prevention, Genetics, and Biomarkers

Jerry Xu, PhD (Sims Lab)

Conference Presentations

• ADA Scientific Sessions — Chicago, IL
  • Abstract: Neutral Sphingomyelinase 2 (nSMase2) Regulates Insulin Synthesis, Secretion, and Glucose Sensing
  •  Abstract: Beta-Cell Extracellular Vesicles—Transfer to and Impact on Neighboring Cells