Praveen Sethupathy, an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics in the UNC School of Medicine, is one of six scientists to receive a prestigious 2016 Pathway to Stop Diabetes grant award.

The award, given by the American Diabetes Association, comes with $1.625 million over a five-year grant term, along with career support and resources.

Sethupathy received the award for a basic research project that seeks to identify the genetic factors that contribute most to shaping the way the host intestine responds to gut microorganisms and dietary challenges.

“The findings could lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets that may be leveraged to prevent or effectively treat diabetes and related metabolic diseases,” he said.

This is the third year the American Diabetes Association has provided grants through the Pathway to Stop Diabetes research initiative.

Sethupathy is Carolina’s second recipient; Zhen Gu, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UNC-NCSU joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, received an award in 2015.

“Diabetes is a complex, multifactorial disease that presents significant challenges for discovering methods for prevention, treatment and ultimately cures,” said Dr. Desmond Schatz, president of medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association. “We need to recruit the best minds to pursue answers to all of the complexities of diabetes and diabetes-related complications so that we can end this devastating disease.”

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