Mary-Elizabeth Patti, MD focuses on mechanisms by which environmental or nutritional risk factors (e.g. obesity, prenatal and early postnatal nutrition) influence gene expression and metabolic function in tissues critical for insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.
Type 2 diabetes begins with insulin resistance, but how does that condition progress to the fullblown disease? The Joslin cohort study, run by Mary-Elizabeth Patti, M.D., and Allison Goldfine, M.D., addresses this question by looking at volunteers along the spectrum of insulin resistance, from no signs of the condition all the way to full-blown type 2 diabetes.
Once people have diabetes, their metabolism changes so much “that it becomes very unclear whether the changes you observe are resulting from the diabetes or are causing the diabetes,” explains Dr. Patti. “If we can identify factors that are different in people at risk for diabetes, those factors may play a causal role in diabetes development.”
1. has thisstudy recently started and is in progress? Is there anticipated date of completion?
2. How are the volunteers selected?
3. Isn’t Type 2 a combination of decreasing effectiveness of the Beta Cells and insulin resistance?
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