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MCDC Operating Committee

The Operating Committee meets quarterly to discuss new initiatives in diabetes research, in both the basic and clinical arenas, and shares information flow about diabetes activities on the campus. This is also an opportunity for the members to report on the ongoing progress in their respective sister research centers and to discuss grant funding opportunities. The committee also serves in an advisory capacity by reviewing CVs of potential recruitment candidates and helping to develop the short-term strategic plan for the University of Michigan Comprehensive Diabetes Center (MCDC).  


Peter Arvan, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Michigan Comprehensive Diabetes Center (MCDC)
Division Chief, Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes
Professor of Internal Medicine, MEND Division
William and Delores Brehm Professor of Type 1 Diabetes Research

Peter Arvan, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Peter Arvan received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a doctorate in cell biology from the Yale University School of Medicine, where he also pursued his residency and research fellowship in endocrinology. He spent eight years on the faculty at Harvard University working at what is now called the Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, and seven years on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. In 2003, he joined the University of Michigan as chief of the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes to assume the Brehm Professorship and brought along a large portion of his research team.

Dr. Arvan’s research focuses on increasing medicine’s understanding of insulin synthesis and secretion, and how insulin synthesis is linked to pancreatic beta cell survival (or demise) in normal individuals and people with diabetes.

Dr. Arvan is a past recipient of a PEW Foundation scholarship in the biomedical sciences, a Wellcome Visiting Professorship in the basic medical sciences and winner of the R.R. Bensley award from the American Association of Anatomy. He is the principal investigator on two NIH-funded RO1 grants and consults on a third. He also has been awarded funding from the American Diabetes Association. He has served as a reviewer for 15 specialty journals and is currently on the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism. He also is a member of numerous scientific societies and is frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences.

Arvan Lab

 

Ernesto Bernal-Mizrachi, M.D.
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, MEND Division
Larry D. Soderquist Professor


ernesto bernal-mizrachi md
Ernesto Bernal-Mizrachi, M.D., received his medical degree in 1989 from the Universidad del Valle Medical School in Cali, Colombia, and completed a residency in internal medicine there. He came to the United States in 1993 for additional residency training in internal medicine at the University of Miami, followed by a three-year fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined Washington University faculty in 1999 and held the academic titles of assistant professor of medicine and assistant professor of cell biology from 2004 until he came to Michigan last summer to assume the Soderquist Professorship.

Dr. Bernal-Mizrachi’s research is focused on the regulation of pancreatic beta cell mass and function, with a particular interest in Akt and mTOR signaling in beta cell proliferation. He has an excellent record of grant funding and currently is principal investigator on two RO1 grants from the National Institutes of Health, as well as two foundation grants.

Dr. Bernal-Mizrachi has served as session chair of a symposium sponsored by the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and ad hoc reviewer activities for various specialty journals and granting agencies. In addition, he has served on study sections and review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Dr. Bernal-Mizrachi was elected a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

Bernal Lab

 

Frank C. Brosius III, M.D.
Director, Diabetic Complications Consortium
Division Chief, Nephrology
Professor of Internal Medicine

Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Frank C. Brosius III, M.D.
Dr. Frank C. Brosius III received his medical degree from the University of Kansas and completed his residency at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the U-M faculty, Dr. Brosius completed fellowships ats the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and his post doctorate at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dr. Brosius is director of the University of Michigan/University of Chicago unit of the Diabetic Complications Consortium. The consortium, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, is developing and testing new animal models of diabetic complications to help researchers better test new theories and treatments.

Dr. Brosius’s research interest focuses on curing and stabilizing diabetic kidney disease, and understanding how glucose transport leads to altered kidney and vascular function in diabetic kidney disease and hypertension.

 

Charles F. Burant, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Michigan Nutrition & Obesity Research Center
Professor of Internal Medicine, MEND Division

Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Adjunct Associate Professor of Kinesiology
Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Professor of Metabolism

charles burant, m.d., ph.d.
As director of the Michigan Nutrition and Obesity Research Center, Dr. Charles F. Burant facilitates the network of obesity-related researchers on the U-M campus, which results in enhancing collaborative studies and speeding the translation of basic science findings into clinically useful therapies for metabolic diseases including obesity, type 2 diabetes and related metabolic disorders.

Dr. Burant earned both his medical degree and doctorate of philosophy in molecular and cellular biology from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. His internship and residency were served at the University of California, San Francisco, and he completed his fellowship in the Department of Medicine, Endocrinology Section at the University of Chicago. He joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1999.

Burant Lab

 

Christin Carter-Su, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Michigan Diabetes Research Center (MDRC)
Director of the MDRC Pilot and Feasibility Study Program and Enrichment Program

Henry Sewall Collegiate Professor in Physiology

Christin Carter-Su, PhD
Dr. Carter-Su received her undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics-Biomedical Sciences from Brown University and a doctorate in Biophysics from the University of Rochester. She carried out a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University in Physiological Chemistry before coming to the University of Michigan in 1981. 

Dr. Carter-Su is internationally recognized for her contributions to defining the JAK-Stat signaling pathway and the understanding of how growth hormone regulates cell function.  Most recently, her laboratory is studying the molecular mechanism of action of the scaffold protein SH2B1, a human obesity gene that has been implicated in appetite suppression, energy expenditure, and insulin sensitivity.

Dr. Carter-Su has received numerous awards for her research achievements and mentoring, including the Roy O. Greep Award from the Endocrine Society, the Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award from the American Physiological Society, The Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award in BioMedical Research from the University of Michigan Medical School and The Rackham Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan.

Carter-Su research profile

 

Eva L. Feldman, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator, U-M Diabetes Complications Group
Director, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Clinic
Director, A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute
Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology

Eva L. Feldman, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Eva Feldman is the co-Principal Investigator of the U-M Diabetes Complications Group (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for the Study of Complications in Diabetes), the Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology, and the director for the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Clinic.

Dr. Feldman received her medical degree from the University of Michigan and completed a neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she served as Chief Resident. She completed a fellowship in clinical neuromuscular disease at the University of Michigan and joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1988.

Dr. Feldman's current investigative activities emphasize an understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment of neuromuscular disorders with an emphasis on diabetic neuropathy and ALS.

 

Thomas W. Gardner, M.D.
Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology

thomas w. gardner md
Thomas Wright Gardner, M.D., specializes in retinal diseases and surgery with an emphasis on diabetic retinopathy, and cares for patients with ocular complications of diabetes at the Kellogg Eye Center. He conducts clinical research to determine how diabetes impairs retinal structure and function, and to investigate new methods to preserve vision. Specifically, his laboratory investigates the mechanisms of retinal cell death and dysfunction from diabetes, including the relationship of altered insulin receptor signaling and nutrient imbalance to autophagy and apoptosis.

Dr. Gardner received his MD at Jefferson Medical College, and served his residency at Northwestern University Medical Center. Following this, he had a vitreoretinal fellowship at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. After a stint in private practice he became the Jack and Nancy Turner Professor of Ophthalmology and Physiology at the Penn State College of Medicine.

His awards include a Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Fellowship, a Physician-Scientist Award from the National Eye Institute, and the Kugle Award and the Mary Tyler Moore and S. Robert Levine MD Award for Excellence in Clinical Research from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He joined the University of Michigan Medical School as a faculty member in 2011.

 

William H. Herman, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Michigan Center for Diabetes Translational Research

Chief, Prevention and Control Division, Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center (MDRTC)
Professor of Internal Medicine, MEND Division
Stefan S. Fajans/GlaxoSmithKline Professor of Diabetes

william h. herman, m.d., ph.d.
William H. Herman, M.D., M.P.H. is an internationally recognized clinician, educator, and scientist in the area of diabetes.  He has contributed to clinical diabetes and to diabetes epidemiology, specifically in the areas of diabetes treatment, surveillance, screening, and cost-effectiveness analysis.  In the 1980s, Dr. Herman wrote some of the first treatises linking lifestyle factors to diabetes and its complications and developed a simulation model that foretold the current epidemic of type 2 diabetes in the United States.

More recently, Dr. Herman has been involved in clinical trials defining effective treatment and prevention strategies for diabetes and in intervention studies to translate those treatments into routine clinical practice. 

Dr. Herman's interests include clinical diabetes and diabetes epidemiology, especially in the areas of surveillance, screening, treatment, and cost-effective analysis. He has authored more the 230 original research papers, reviews and textbook chapters and is a member of the research groups for the Diabetes Control Complications Trial (DCCT), Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC), Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS), and Translating Research In Action for Diabetes (TRIAD). Professor Herman received the American Diabetes Association's Kelly West Award for outstanding achievement in diabetes epidemiology in 2006.

 

Dorene Markel, M.S., M.H.S.A.

Director, The Brehm Center

Research Investigator, Department of Medical Education

dorene markel ms mhsa
Dorene Samuels Markel, M.S., M.H.S.A. holds the position of Director of the Brehm Center at the University of Michigan Health System, which is focused on transforming the way research and collaborations are undertaken, utilizing type 1 diabetes research as a platform. Ms. Markel has been on staff at the University of Michigan Medical School since 1984 and has held a number of positions working in the areas of genetic and clinical research, both in scientific and administrative capacities.

Ms. Markel holds a faculty appointment in the Medical School’s Department of Medical Education and is the PI of an NIH Partners in Research Grant, focused on engaging the community in clinical research.

Ms. Markel has also served on numerous committees and taskforces locally and nationally, including current service on the State of Michigan Department of Community Health Scientific Advisory Board and as an elected member of the University of Michigan School of Public Health Alumni Board of Governors. Ms. Markel received a Master’s Degree in Human Genetics, specializing in genetic counseling, from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1983 and a Master’s Degree is Health Services Administration from the U of M School of Public Health in 1991.

 

Ram K. Menon, M.D.

Director, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, CS Mott Children's Hospital
David Murray Cowie, M.D. Research Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases
Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

ram menon md
Ram Kumar Menon, MD, is the David Murray Cowie, MD Research Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases; Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology; and Director of the Pediatric Endocrinology Division at U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. His clinical interest is in childhood diabetes. The research emphasis of Dr. Menon’s laboratory is to understand the role of the growth hormone/growth hormone receptor axis in health and disease.

Dr. Menon received his medical degree from the All-India Institute of Medical Science in New Delhi, India, and also studied at the Maulana Azad Medical College, in New Delhi. He completed his residency in pediatrics at the All-India Institute of Medical Science.

The fellowships that Dr. Menon held were in Endocrinology & Metabolism at the Royal Free Hospital & Medical College in London, England, and in Pediatric Endocrinology at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, OH.

Dr. Menon is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and is board-certified in pediatrics and in pediatric endocrinology.

 

Martin G. Myers, Jr., M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Michigan Diabetes Research & Training Center
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine - MEND Division

Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

Marilyn H. Vincent Professor of Diabetes Research

martin myers
Dr. Martin Myers, Jr., is Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology & Diabetes; Professor of Molecular & Integrative Physiology; the Marilyn H. Vincent Professor of Diabetes Research; and Director of the Michigan Diabetes Research Center at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Myers received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, and his MD and PhD from Harvard University. Dr. Myers’s first independent research program was at the Joslin Diabetes Center/Harvard Medical School. He joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2004 and was named the Marilyn H. Vincent Professor of Diabetes Research in 2008.

Dr. Myers’ research focuses on the action of the hormone, leptin. Leptin is an adipose-derived hormone that signals the status of long-term energy stores to the brain, decreasing feeding and permitting energy utilization via a variety of neuroendocrine functions. The Myers lab studies leptin action along two broad themes: Mechanisms of intracellular signaling, and the neural basis of leptin action. Revealing these mechanisms may reveal potential targets for therapeutic intervention in obesity and diabetes. Research in the Myers lab is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association.

Dr. Myers has received numerous awards for his research achievements, including the Jerome Conn Award and the Basic Science Research Award from the University of Michigan, as well as Outstanding Scientific Achievement Awards from The Obesity Society and from the American Diabetes Association, and the Ernst Oppenheimer Award from the Endocrine Society.

Research in the Myers lab is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association.

 

Massimo Pietropaolo, M.D.
Director, Laboratory of Immunogenetics

Professor of Internal Medicine, MEND Division

Professor of Pediatrics & Communicable Diseases

massimo pietropaolo
Dr. Massimo Pietropaolo is Professor of Internal Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, Director of the Laboratory of Immunogenetics, and a U-M Brehm Investigator. He received his medical degree from the University of Perugia School of Medicine in Perugia, Italy, where he also completed his residency and clinical fellowship in endocrine and metabolic sciences. Afterward, Dr. Pietropaolo was a research fellow at the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Pietropaolo has received a number of national and international scientific prizes and awards, including the Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association, and in 2008 the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Perugia School of Medicine, Italy, his alma mater.

In 2009, Dr. Pietropaolo served as the Chair of the Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases B Subcommittee of the Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Initial Review Group (DDK-B) in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). He is on the steering committee of the Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet Network and the principal investigator of the University of Michigan Affiliate TrialNet and Type 1 Diabetes Genetic Consortium (T1DGC) site.

Throughout his career, Dr. Pietropaolo’s research has been supported by the NIH, the NIDDK, and the American Diabetes Association and he is a recipient of two Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fellowships.