Advisory Committees

Richard Peek, MD

Area: GI

Role at Vanderbilt and Rationale for Selection:

Director, NIDDK-funded Digestive Disease Research Center; facilitates coordinated interaction with this P30 NIDDK-funded center.

Ray Harris, MD

Area: Medicine/Nephrology

Role at Vanderbilt and Rationale for Selection:

Director, Vanderbilt Kidney Research Center; facilitates interaction with NIDDK-funded investigators working in kidney disease related to diabetes.

John Kuriyan, PhD

Area: Biochemistry

Role at Vanderbilt and Rationale for Selection:

Dean of Basic Sciences at Vanderbilt University; extensive experience in biomedical research and oversees all biomedical research at VU.

Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD

Area: Biochemistry

Role at Vanderbilt and Rationale for Selection:

Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer at VUMC; extensive experience in biomedical research and oversees all biomedical research at VUMC.

Roy Zent, MD, PhD

Area: Medicine/Nephrology

Role at Vanderbilt and Rationale for Selection:

Vice Chair for Research, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Carmella Evans-Molina, MD, PhD

Role/Institution and Rationale for Selection:

Eli Lilly and Company Professor of Pediatric Diabetes 
Director, Indiana Diabetes Research Center; research on molecular-inflammatory causes of beta-cell dysfunction

Steven Kahn, MB, ChB

Role/Institution and Rationale for Selection:

Director, UW Diabetes Research Center; conducts clinical and basic (T0-T3 spectrum) investigations in diabetes; research on clinical trials and islet physiology.

E. Dale Abel, MD, PhD

Role/Institution and Rationale for Selection:

Chair of Medicine, UCLA; extensive studies in mechanisms of mitochondrial metabolism and cardiac physiology (diabetic cardiomyopathy).

Jeffrey Pessin, PhD

Role/Institution and Rationale for Selection:

Albert Einstein School of Medicine
Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg Professorial Chair in Diabetes Research
Director, Diabetes Research Center; research in metabolism and lipogenesis.