Press Release

Endocrine Society Honors 2015 Helmsley Award Winners

Washington, DC February 25, 2015

The Endocrine Society today announced it has selected 22 winners of the Helmsley Charitable Trust Abstract Awards in Type 1 Diabetes.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust Abstract Awards recognize the outstanding work of trainees and early-career professionals in the diabetes field. The award honors researchers who are studying innovations in clinical care for people with Type 1 diabetes as well as the underlying mechanisms and causes of the condition.

The award winners will present their work at ENDO 2015, the Society’s 97th Annual Meeting & Expo in San Diego, CA from March 5-8, 2015. As part of the award, the honorees received travel grants to attend the annual meeting.

  • Shivani Agarwal of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, “A Multivariate Model of Demographic and Psychosocial Predictors of HbA1C in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes”
  • Sophia Ali, MD, of the State University of New York at Buffalo, “Reversal of Effects of Liraglutide As Additional Treatment to Insulin in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes after Cessation of Therapy”
  • Shipra Bansal of SUNY Downstate Medical Center, “Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of US Residents Regarding Insulin Pump in Diabetics”
  • Sena Cantas Orsdemir, MD, of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA, “Are Families of Children with Type 1 DM Ready for Televisits?”
  • Julia Cartaya, MD, of Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, MA, “Predictors of Visits with a Registered Dietitian (RD) for Youth and Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D)”
  • Tamara Casteels of CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Austria, “Epigenome-Wide Screen for Alpha to Beta Cell Transdifferentiation”
  • E. Danielle Dean, PhD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, “Hepatic-Derived Factor Stimulates Alpha Cell Proliferation”
  • Aoife Egan, MB, BCh, BAO, of National University of Ireland Galway, “A Regional Prepregnancy Care Program for Women with Pregestational Diabetes: Is It Worthwhile?”
  • Mohamed I. Husseiny Elsayed, PhD, of Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA, “Methylation-Specific PCR Assay for Detection of Beta Cell Death in Newly Onset Type 1 Diabetes”
  • Manivel Eswaran, MD, MS, of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX, “Type 1 Diabetes and Bone Marrow Transplantation”
  • Sana Hasan, DO, University of Nebraska Medical Center, “The Effect of All Trans Retinoic Acid on Insulitis and Beta Cell Apoptosis in NOD Mice”
  • Mark Huising, PhD, University of California, Davis, “Urocortin3 Triggers Somatostatin-Mediated Negative Feedback to Control Insulin Secretion”
  • Chad Hunter, PhD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, “Single-Stranded DNA Binding Protein 3 (SSBP3) Participates in Ldb1 and Islet-1 Mediated Transcriptional Complexes in Pancreatic Beta Cells”
  • Philippe Klee of University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland, “Choline Protects Human and Murine Beta-Cells in Vitro Against Cytokines By Decreasing Mitochondrial Permeability Transition”
  • Michelle Mangual, MD, of San Juan City Hospital in Puerto Rico, “Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Related to Acute Liver Failure: a Challenging Diagnosis”
  • Sara McMillin, PhD, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, “Assessing the Relative Contributions of Three Transcriptional Co-Activators to Hepatic Gluconeogenesis in Vivo”
  • Geetha Mukerji, MD, MSc, of Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care in Toronto, Ontario, Canada,  “Improving Transitions of Care in Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes”
  • Kadapalakere Reddy, MBBS, of State University of New York at Buffalo, “Metastatic Germ Cell Testicular Tumor with High Testosterone Levels. Is That True?”
  • Kanika Shanker, MD, of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, “Autoimmune Hypoglycemia in a Young Girl with Autoimmune Overlap Syndrome”
  • David Weber, MD, MSCE, of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, “Sex Differences in Bone Density and Body Composition in Children Newly Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes”
  • Feng Wu, MD, of the Center for Stem Cell Biology, Roger Williams Medical Center, Boston University School of Medicine, “Bone Marrow Stem Cells Support Human Islet Beta-Cell Function in an Encapsulated Microenvironment”
  • Mingfeng Zhang, PhD,  of Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, “Induction of Mixed Chimerism for Cure of Overt Type 1 Diabetes in NOD Mice, Using Clinically Available Reagents without Radiation”

About Endocrine Society

Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses, and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.

Media Contacts

Colleen Williams Senior Communications Manager, Public Relations Phone: (202)-971-3611 [email protected]

Jenni Glenn Gingery Director, Communications and Media Relations Phone: (202)-971-3655 [email protected]

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