Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent urination, fatigue and unexplained weight loss. Other symptoms include increased hunger, having a sensation of pins and needles, and sores (wounds) that heal slowly. Symptoms often develop slowly. Long-term complications from high blood sugar include heart disease, stroke, diabetic retinopathy, which can result in blindness, kidney failure, and poor blood flow in the lower-limbs, which may lead to amputations. The sudden onset of hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state may occur; however, ketoacidosis is uncommon.
The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health is the public health school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.
Steven H. Zeisel is an American academic. He is Professor Emeritus in Nutrition and Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Miquel Porta is a Catalan physician, epidemiologist and scholar. He has promoted the integration of biological, clinical and environmental knowledge and methods in health research and teaching, which he has conducted internationally; notably, in Spain, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard, Imperial College London, and several other universities in Europe, North America, Kuwait, and Brazil. Appointed by the International Epidemiological Association (IEA), in 2008 he succeeded the Canadian epidemiologist John M. Last as Editor of "A Dictionary of Epidemiology". In the Preface to this book he argues for an inclusive and integrative practice of the science of epidemiology. In September 2023, Porta made public through several social networks a call to suggest changes to the new, 7th. edition of the dictionary. The deadline for such contributions is 30 November 2023.
JeffreyFlier is an American physician, endocrinologist; widely cited scientist; the Higginson Professor of Medicine and Physiology at Harvard Medical School; and a Distinguished Service Professor at the same institution. He was the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University from 2007 to 2016.
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough insulin, or the cells of the body becoming unresponsive to the hormone's effects. Classic symptoms include polydipsia, polyuria, weight loss, and blurred vision. If left untreated, the disease can lead to various health complications, including disorders of the cardiovascular system, eye, kidney, and nerves. Diabetes accounts for approximately 4.2 million deaths every year, with an estimated 1.5 million caused by either untreated or poorly treated diabetes.
Barry Michael Popkin is an American nutrition and obesity researcher at the Carolina Population Center and the W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, where he is the director of the Global Food Research Program. He developed the concept of "nutrition transition". He is the author of over 650 journal articles and a book, The World is Fat, translated into a dozen languages.
Gökhan S. Hotamisligil is a Turkish-American physician scientist; James Stevens Simmons Chair of Genetics and Metabolism at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH); Director of the Sabri Ülker Center for Metabolic Research and associate member of Harvard-MIT Broad Institute, Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the Joslin Diabetes Center.
Rebecca Hasson is an Associate Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan. She researches the causes and consequences of pediatric obesity, how the environment impacts obesity related metabolic risk factors to inform health policies.
Nita Gandhi Forouhi is a British physician and academic, specialising in nutrition and epidemiology. She is Professor of Population Health and Nutrition at the University of Cambridge, the programme leader of the nutritional epidemiology programme of its MRC Epidemiology Unit, and an honorary consultant public health physician with Public Health England.
Shiriki K. Kumanyika is an Emeritus Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and co-chair of the International Association for the Study of Obesity International Obesity Task Force. She has previously served as Associate Dean for Disease Prevention and was founding director of the University of Pennsylvania Master of Public Health. She chairs the African American Collaborative Obesity Research Network. She is the former president of the American Public Health Association.
Anna Maria Siega-Riz is an American nutrition, maternal and child health scientist and academic administrator. She is dean of the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences. Siega-Riz was previously associate dean for research and the Jeanette Lancaster Alumni Professor of Nursing at University of Virginia School of Nursing.
Lisa Bodnar is an American nutritional and perinatal epidemiologist. She is the Vice-Chair for Research and a tenured professor at University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on the contributions of pregnancy weight gain, dietary patterns, maternal obesity, and maternal vitamin D deficiency to adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes.
Penny Gordon-Larsen is an obesity researcher. In July 2023, she was named Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after serving as Interim Vice Chancellor for Research from March 2022. She is the Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, where she served as associate dean for research from 2018 to 2022, and was also named a William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor on Sept. 1, 2023. She is also a Faculty Fellow at the Carolina Population Center. Dr. Gordon-Larsen's NIH-funded research portfolio focuses on individual-, household-, and community-level susceptibility to obesity and its cardiometabolic consequences, and her work ranges from molecular and genetic to environmental and societal-level factors. She was the 2015 president of The Obesity Society and a member of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Clinical Obesity Research Panel (CORP).
The Kelly M. West Award for Outstanding Achievement in Epidemiology is an honor bestowed by the American Diabetes Association. It has been awarded annually to an individual since 1986. The award is named in honor of Kelly M. West.
Elizabeth Louise Barrett-Connor was Chief of the Division of Epidemiology and Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego. She investigated the role of hormones in pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoporosis.
Liza Makowski Hayes is an American nutritional biochemist. As a professor at the University of Tennessee, her research focuses on how metabolic stress and inflammation alters the progression of diseases, specifically obesity and cancer.
April Perry Carson is an American epidemiologist. She is an associate professor of epidemiology and associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. Carson is director of the Jackson Heart Study.
Melinda Annetta Beck is an American nutritionist and professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she also serves as interim department chair. Her research investigates the relationship between nutrition and immune response to infectious disease. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.
Dana Dabelea is the Conrad M. Riley Distinguished Professor of epidemiology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She is known for her work on how both internal and external factors can influence how diabetes and obesity develops within individuals.
