Gator Engineering professor Cheri Stabler, an expert in diabetes research, will play an integral role in the new UF Diabetes Institute.
Stabler, a professor at the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, together with her team, recently won a $4.9 million NIH grant to engineer a microchip that will serve to house islets that produce beta cells. Beta cells are necessary for the storage and release of insulin, a hormone that serves to reduce blood glucose concentration in the body for healthy functioning. Her team hopes to use the microchips to improve the current amount of islets available to transplant into patients with diabetes, as well as screen pharmaceuticals and create beta cells from stem cells. This and other institute research efforts are expected to make significant impact on lives of people who have diabetes.
Stabler was recently hired to lead research efforts in Smart Polymer Nanomedicines, one of the strategic research areas defined in UF’s Preeminence Plan. The College of Engineering’s partnership with the UF Diabetes Institute – and many other interdisciplinary efforts on campus – is central to the college tenet that collaboration is the most effective way to achieve translational research breakthroughs, and to directly impact society.
Read more about Stabler’s research and the UF Diabetes Institute.