News

A digital app for clinicians developed by UAB researchers classifies diabetes into five subtypes, enabling more personalized treatment and better outcomes for patients.

A research manuscript by Fernando Bril, M.D., assistant professor in the UAB Department of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, is featured in the Endocrine Society’s Article Highlights of 2025, a selective list celebrating the quality and excellence of articles published in the past year.

A new study led by Ananda Basu, M.D., professor in the UAB Department of Medicine Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, determines why early post-meal glucagon concentrations are higher in Type 1 diabetes (T1D) than in individuals without diabetes using a novel glucagon isotope tracer. His findings were recently published in the February 2026 issue of Diabetes. 

Sushant Bhatnagar, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the UAB Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, has published an extensive review in Comprehensive Physiology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Physiological Society, offering new insights into the cell-specific roles of BAI receptors in health and metabolic disorders.

In honor of Diabetes Awareness Month, we caught up with Nicole Johnson, DrPH, the first Miss America with Type 1 diabetes (T1D), who now calls Birmingham home. Johnson shares her story of living with T1D since age 19 and how it has shaped her lifelong career of advocacy and education.

A new study led by UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center Associate Scientist Fernando Bril, M.D., provides the first evidence that MASLD prevalence is beginning to decrease in adults with diabetes in the U.S. for the first time in decades. However, this good news is overshadowed by the significant increase observed in liver fibrosis.

Ananda Basu, MBBS, MD, FRCP, M.D., has been appointed as an associate director of the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC) and will play an integral role on the center’s leadership team.

A new study led by Ananda Basu, M.D., used novel non-radioactive, stable glucagon tracers for the first time to characterize glucagon metabolism in humans with and without Type 1 diabetes, providing tools for further exploration into pancreatic alpha cell function in both Type 1 and 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC) senior scientists Ananda Basu, M.D., and Rita Basu, M.D., were each honored during the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine Spring 2025 Endowed Chairs and Professorships Reception, May 7.

Haifa Alsharif, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scholar in the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center (UCDC), won first place for her poster presentation at the UAB Department of Medicine’s 2025 Trainee Research Symposium (TRS).

W. Timothy Garvey, M.D.New research presented by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers shows that a 2.4mg dose of the obesity drug semaglutide can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, or T2D, by 60 percent.

Written by: Caroline Newman Media contact: Anna Jones The University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Family and Community Medicine’s Vice Chair for Research Tapan Mehta, Ph.D., is partnering with investigators at the University of Mississippi Medical Center to lead a $3.6 million study to develop a sustainable and effective Type 2 diabetes management intervention in adults who have Type 2 diabetes...

In grateful recognition of a transformational $95 million lead gift from longtime University of Alabama at Birmingham supporter Marnix E. Heersink, M.D., the UAB School of Medicine will now be named the UAB Marnix E.

UAB Department of Pediatrics Professor and Ralph Froshin Endowed Chair in Pediatric Endocrinology Ambika Ashraf, M.D., co-edited a book “Pediatric Dyslipidemia” alongside colleague Bhuvana Sunil, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.

The commission recommends a shift away from relying solely on BMI to more accurately define obesity as a disease.

The Denosumab for Type 1 Diabetes phase 1/2 clinical trial, is a collaborative study with the Arthur Riggs Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute and the Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at Indiana University.

A cluster analysis in the Deep South showed that racial background significantly influences diabetes subtype distribution.

Many people, including clinicians and researchers, think “the main reason people regain weight after weight loss is because the body fights back” in a phenomenon called metabolic adaptation, said UAB researcher Cátia Martins, Ph.D. Martins, a leading scientist studying metabolic adaptation, explains what she has found and her plans for a groundbreaking clinical trial.

Lund is the fifth Distinguished Fellow from UAB named since 2019, a sign of the strength of immunology research at UAB.

Continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps can help patients “live a quality life without burning out on managing diabetes,” said Ananda Basu, M.D., director of the Diabetes Technology Program at UAB.

Continuous glucose monitors are “such a useful and impactful behavior modification tool” that half of his patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes now use these devices, said Fernando Ovalle, M.D., director of UAB’s Multidisciplinary Comprehensive Diabetes Clinic. Learn how data leads to better decisions and better control of diabetes.

Anath Shalev, M.D., did everything she could to change treatment for Type 1 diabetes from her lab, but getting to first-in-human trials meant taking a step she had always resisted. The most surprising thing about launching a startup, though? “I have enjoyed it.”

Knockout of TXNIP improves diabetes-associated hyperglycemia and hyperglucagonemia.

This therapy, using sustained release of nitric oxide, may be a novel, efficient and safe way to prevent and treat multiple metabolic diseases.

Benefits of the blood pressure medication verapamil include delayed disease progression, lowered insulin requirements and preservation of some beta cell function.

John Kearney, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology, will be honored for 45 years of service to UAB during the annual Service Awards banquet March 6.