2024 Breakthrough T1D Fellowship Awardees
Meet our 2024 ISPAD-Breakthrough T1D Research Fellowship Awardees!
We extend our sincere thanks to Breakthrough T1D for their invaluable support of this program.
📄 Look for the report icon to read about our Fellows’ research and progress.
Archana Nepal Bhattarai
Dr. Archana Nepal is an accomplished pediatrician and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS), where she has been serving since 2017. With a distinguished academic background, she earned her MD in Pediatrics from Kathmandu University in 2015 and completed her MBBS from the same institution in 2009.
Dr. Nepal Bhattarai's expertise extends across multiple domains of pediatrics. She plays a pivotal role in teaching and mentoring both MBBS and MD students at PAHS, where she also serves as the Interns’ Coordinator. Her clinical focus includes running the Endocrinology Clinic, particularly for children with diabetes, where she coordinates the "Life for a Child" program. She also contributes to general pediatric care and is an attending physician at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Patan Hospital. Additionally, she extends her knowledge as a visiting faculty member at PAHS outreach hospitals.
Beyond her current roles, Dr. Nepal Bhattarai has a broad range of professional experience, including her time as a Consultant Pediatrician at Elite Health Clinic since 2021 and her tenure as an ICU registrar at the International Friendship Children's Hospital. She has also worked at various teaching hospitals, including B and C Teaching Hospital in Jhapa and the International Friendship Children's Hospital.
Her research endeavors focus on diabetes in children and adolescents. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator for a study funded by MQ Mental Health that explores the concept of pre-depression in juvenile diabetes. Her scholarly contributions include several published works, particularly in pediatric respiratory health and infectious diseases.
Dr. Nepal Bhattarai’s commitment to pediatric healthcare has been recognized with accolades, including the SIMCA Best Paper Award at the Nepal Pediatric Society Conference. She is an active member of numerous professional organizations, such as the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes and the Nepal Pediatric Society.
In addition to her clinical and academic roles, Dr. Nepal Bhattarai has participated in numerous workshops and training programs, furthering her expertise in pediatric life support, critical care, and research methodology.
Cansu Ceren Eryılmaz Çakar 📄
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Dr. Cansu Ceren Eryılmaz, MD, is a pediatrician currently serving as a clinical fellow at the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine while pursuing a Master’s degree in Pediatric Nephrology at Istanbul University. After completing her medical degree and pediatric specialization at Istanbul University, Dr. Eryılmaz focused her career on pediatric endocrinology and nephrology.
In recent years, her research efforts have been dedicated to understanding and managing complications in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes, focusing on preserving kidney and vascular health. Her significant contributions have been recognized with grants from Istanbul University’s Scientific Research Projects Unit, and her work has been published in several notable academic journals.
Dr Eryılmaz received the ESPE Undergraduate Achievement Award in 2024 for her academic accomplishments. She is actively involved in ISPAD and has participated in the ISPAD Science School for Physicians in Verona, Italy (2023). With the generous support of the ISPAD-Breakthrough T1D Research Fellowship, Dr Eryılmaz will initiate her research project at the University of Cambridge, titled "Exploring the Role of Lipoprotein(a) in the Development of Vascular Complications in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes." Under the supervision of Dr Loredana Marcovecchio and her team, this fellowship supports her research and provides invaluable mentorship and the opportunity to collaborate with leading experts in the field.
Catherine Corey
Catherine Corey, MD, MPH, is a pediatric endocrinology fellow in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in the United States of America. She earned her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed medical school at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by residency in Pediatrics at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Her overarching goal in becoming a physician-scientist is to improve the quality of life and long-term health outcomes for patients with chronic endocrine disorders - in particular, children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Dr. Corey has worked as a scientific researcher since 2006. After starting her career at the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute, she was recruited to work at the Pittsburgh Heart, Lung, and Blood Vascular Medicine Institute, where she developed and optimized assays for mitochondrial function and metabolic characterization. She has published 25 peer-reviewed research papers, and her work has been presented in 27 posters at professional meetings. Dr. Corey always knew her true passion was applying her research skills to patient care. She enrolled in medical school as a non-traditional student after extensively shadowing a physician-scientist in pediatric endocrinology and witnessing the burden of chronic illness on patients and families.
During medical school, Dr. Corey began working on a clinical research project with one of her mentors, Dr. Ingrid Libman, to evaluate the prevalence of retinopathy in patients with T1D and determine whether ease of access improves compliance with screening recommendations for at-risk populations. That experience reinforced her desire to center her research on children and adolescents with T1D. Becoming more familiar with the field, she also realized that the threefold higher relative risk of fracture for T1D patients and their overall bone health could play a large role in their quality of life. Yet, the impact of T1D on bone health has not been well-studied. Dr. Corey intends to target that line of research and help fill that gap with her mentors, Drs. Libman and Fazeli. Dr. Corey attended ISPAD Science School in 2024. As an ISPAD-Breakthrough T1D fellowship award recipient, she is thrilled to have the opportunity to investigate “Bone health in T1D,” focusing on bone marrow adipose tissue and the possible association with insulin deficiency and inflammation.
Cecilia Nobili 📄
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Download and read the progress report here.
Cecilia Nobili graduated from Milano Bicocca University in 2020 with a degree in medicine. She is a pediatrics resident at Regina Margherita Children's Hospital in Turin, Italy. Driven by her deep interest in research that peaked in pursuing a master's degree in biostatistics and clinical research, Cecilia is involved in studies on Advanced Hybrid Closed-Loop (AHCL) use at diabetes onset, its later management, and the role of educational therapy under the Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes division of Regina Margherita Children's Hospital, led by Professor Luisa de Sanctis.
Her project, titled "Menstrual Cycle Phases Effects on Glucose Metrics in Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes: the MENSES (Monitoring and Enlightening glucose Sensor Excursions due to Sexual Hormones) Study," is supported by the ISPAD-Breakthrough T1D Research Fellowship. Developed under Dr. Davide Tinti's supervision, the project addresses the significant gender disparity in the standardization of insulin therapy for adolescent girls, both for Multiple Daily Injections (MDI) and AHCL systems. Currently, insulin therapy is rarely adjusted to account for hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle due to a lack of evidence and guidelines, which can result in suboptimal glycemic control, particularly in the pre-menstrual period. While investigating how these hormonal changes affect blood sugar levels, the study seeks to understand also whether individual factors (e.g., dysmenorrhea, diabetes duration, age at menarche, and others) correlate with glucose metrics.
Cecilia hopes to contribute to a more comprehensive and personalized approach to diabetes management, particularly for young female patients. Her dedication to improving pediatric diabetes care stems from a commitment to optimizing treatment strategies, including insulin therapy adaptation, physical activity, and educational interventions
Jayde Hooven-Davis
Jayde Hooven-Davis, MD is a board-certified pediatrician and current postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hooven-Davis received her medical degree at Penn State College of Medicine in 2019. They completed her pediatric and chief residency at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in 2022 and 2023, respectively. During her pediatric endocrinology fellowship, Dr. Hooven-Davis is pursuing a master's in clinical research from the Institute for Clinical Research Education at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Hooven-Davis's career mission is to leverage cutting-edge diabetes technology to improve the quality, efficiency, and equality of care for every child with type 1 diabetes, ultimately enabling them to thrive. This career passion was sparked after an enlightening conversation with a camper and his mother during a summer diabetes camp in 2007. While serving as his camp counselor, she shared and reflected on the power of emotional support from family and friends, health care providers serving as coaches and educators, and personal use of diabetes technology, which helped her to accept and adapt to life with her own type 1 diabetes (T1D).
She is pleased to be granted the ISPAD-Breakthrough T1D Fellowship 2024 to support the "Factors contributing to Automated Insulin Delivery Variability in Diabetes Outcomes (AViD Outcomes) Study." The goal of this study is to begin to understand why youth with type 1 diabetes using AID systems experience variations in glycemic control and how behavioral, clinical, and psychological factors contribute to these differences. This data will be an integral step in designing and testing targeted interventions for modifiable factors to optimize glycemic control at the patient, provider, or industry level. Dr. Hooven-Davis is grateful for the guidance and support of her mentors, Dr. Ingrid Libman and Dr. Christine March, at the University of Pittsburgh.
Jędrzej Chrzanowski 📄
JÄ™drzej Chrzanowski, MD, graduated with his medical degree from the Medical University of Lodz in 2023. He is currently a PhD student at the Department of Biostatistics and Translational Medicine under the supervision of Professor Wojciech Fendler. Dr. Chrzanowski’s research focuses on DNA methylation in the early years following a type 1 diabetes diagnosis, specifically exploring the relationship between DNA methylation and glycemic control. His PhD project, titled “Decoding ‘metabolic memory’ – how glycemic control and variability affect epigenetic changes in young people with type 1 diabetes”, is supported by the Polish National Science Centre's Preludium BIS 4 grant.
Dr. Chrzanowski actively collaborates with clinical teams in the Department of Pediatrics, Diabetology, Endocrinology, and Nephrology at the Medical University of Lodz, contributing to international trials to improve outcomes for children with type 1 diabetes. He is also the principal investigator on the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s "Pearls of Science I" grant and the ISPAD Breakthrough T1D grant.
He participated in multiple training programs, including the ISPAD Science School for Physicians 2024, ESHG Clinical Genomics and NGS 2021, Charles University’s Summer School of Experimental Surgery 2019, and the NGS School 2019: Machine Learning for Biomedicine.
Dr. Chrzanowski developed an early passion for research, actively engaging in various scientific projects and collaborations. His work centers on pediatric diabetology, employing advanced biostatistical and bioinformatic methods. He has co-authored 22 publications, with articles featured in leading journals such as Diabetes Care, Diabetes Technology and Therapeutics, and Pediatric Diabetes. He has presented his research at numerous international and national conferences, including ISPAD and EASD. He has received various awards for his contributions, including research scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Health and the Marshal of Lodzkie Voivodeship.
Dr. Chrzanowski is also dedicated to science communication and education, having co-organized several national and international conferences. He remains committed to advancing knowledge and improving clinical care through research, collaboration, and mentorship.
Julia Mercer 📄
Julia Mercer has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nutrition from Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Her first introduction to pediatric diabetes was at Diabetes Camp during her Internship at QE11 Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. Since 2002, Julia has been working in the Diabetes Endocrine Clinics at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary, Alberta . She is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator.
Julia's role involves educating children and families as well as supporting children at school and during transition to adult diabetes care. Early in her career, she was the study dietitian in the “Trial to Reduce Insulin Dependent Diabetes in the Genetically at Risk” (TRIGR) study.
Over the past few years, Julia has noticed an increase in use of protein supplements. Currently there are no guidelines regarding use, and more importantly, safety in children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). Julia recently had the privilege of attending the 20th ISPAD Science School for Healthcare Professionals in Lisbon, Portugal. With generous support from the ISPAD-Breakthrough T1D Research Fellowship, Julia is looking forward to starting her research project "Does Use of Protein Supplements Impact Kidney Health in Children with Type 1 Diabetes?"
Julia hopes her research will help provide the basis for evidence-based nutrition recommendations and contribute to the overall health of children with T1DM.
This project will be carried out under the supervision of Dr. Daniele Pacaud, Pediatric Endocrinologist.
Kamrul Huda 📄
Kamrul Huda has a strong educational background, a Master of Commerce in Management, a Master of Public Health (MPH), and a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Planning.
Currently, he is the Program Manager of the ‘Life for a Child Program (LFAC)’ at the ‘Diabetic Association of Bangladesh(BADAS)’ in collaboration with Diabetes Australia. Additionally, he serves as the local site project manager for the HumAn-1 Trial in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, and the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh, which studies using different insulin types for young people with Type 1 diabetes in low-resource settings. Kamrul effectively coordinates various trial activities, showcasing his strong management abilities.
With more than 15 years of experience, Kamrul specializes in data management and analysis using tools like Stata, SPSS, and Microsoft Excel. His skills also include research, which makes him a well-rounded professional.
Kamrul is passionate about sharing knowledge, as reflected in his publications on diabetes incidence and the risk factors for retinopathy in young people with Type 1 diabetes in Bangladesh. His commitment to positively impacting his field is evident through this work.
Olivier Pollé
Olivier Pollé, MD, PhD, completed his medical degree at Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium, in 2017. During this time, he had the opportunity to become an elective student at King's College London in St Thomas' hospital. After his medical degree, he pursued his specialized training in pediatrics and graduated as a pediatrician in 2024.
During his medical studies, he developed a strong research interest. From 2018 to 2022, under the supervision of Pr. Philippe Lysy participated in coordinating the DIATAG consortium and worked on a PhD project combining clinical and fundamental research, which was defended in 2023. The study aimed to better understand and identify biomarkers of partial remission in children with new-onset type 1 diabetes. He had the opportunity to present his results orally at the ADA2022 and ENDO2022 congresses.
To improve the quality of life of children with type 1 diabetes, his current research focuses on new technologies and identifying poorly invasive biomarkers of beta-cell residual function (including continuous glucose monitoring and magnetic resonance imaging). He authored and co-authored key articles in that field, refining the current definition of partial remission. He was involved in different clinical trials during his residency, including the GPPAD consortium.
With the support of the ISPAD-JDRF Research Fellowship 2024, Dr. Olivier Pollé will participate in the PROCEDE project within the pediatric endocrinology and diabetology units of the Necker Enfants Malades and Robert Debré facilities in Paris (AP-HP, France) under the supervision of Pr. Jacques Beltrand. The project aims to study the effect of early tight glycemic control (using different treatment modalities) on brain developmental trajectory in the youth following type 1 diabetes diagnosis. The study may provide the first pediatric evidence for using automated hybrid closed-loop systems to diagnose type 1 diabetes. It will focus on a potential beneficial effect on a challenging outcome such as neurocognitive performance.
Steven James 📄
Dr. Steven James has around two decades of experience as a nurse clinician in cardiology, emergency medicine, pediatrics, and diabetes. This has been in Australian and Canadian healthcare systems and at Australian diabetes non-governmental organizations. More recently, he has been a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer of Nursing at a relatively young regional University in Queensland, Australia, for around seven years.
At the time of writing, Dr James has received grant funding valued at over $1,400,000 AUD and has 54 peer-reviewed publications. His Scopus h-index is 10, and his number of citations is 3,331. Similarly, his Google Scholar h-index is 13, his i10-index is 15, and the number of citations is 4,925. Of Steven’s publications in SciVal, his field-weighted citation impact from 2014 to 2022 was 19.52, which put him 1852% over the world average in all subject areas; 6.9% of these publications are in the 1% most cited publications worldwide, and 13.8% in the 10% most cited publications worldwide (field weighted). Overall, his publications have been cited by researchers in 80 countries, from institutions such as Harvard Medical School, Stanford University, University of Oxford, and University of Edinburgh, illustrating the reach of his research. Moreover, 55.2% of his publications have involved international collaboration, and 45.5% have received social media attention, illustrating the reach of his work beyond academia. His research is frequently presented nationally and internationally in countries including Uganda, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, and the United States of America.
Dr James is the recipient of the prestigious Diabetes Australia Research Program 2024 Charles Coghlan OAM Emerging Researcher Award, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Australia (2018) has recognised him as a future research leader in diabetes. He is also a member of the ISPAD Advisory Council, the lead of the ISPAD Science Schools committee, and a member of the ISPAD Education committee.
Thereza Piloya Were
Dr. Thereza Piloya Were is a Senior Lecturer at Makerere University and one of only four pediatric endocrinologists in Uganda, a country of more than 45 million people. With over a decade of experience in pediatric endocrinology, she practices at the Mulago National Referral Hospital, the teaching hospital for Makerere University Medical School, where she trains medical residents and other healthcare professionals.
Dr. Piloya runs one of the largest pediatric diabetes clinics in Uganda and has been instrumental in establishing inpatient services at the hospital. Her work extends beyond the hospital, as she has led numerous outreach clinical training sessions across the country, strengthening diabetes care countrywide. She has also led and participated in the development of national and international diabetes guidelines.
She has served as a principal investigator (PI) and collaborator on multiple research grants. She has mentored residents in clinical diabetes research and created effective research teams. Her work has resulted in several peer-reviewed publications. Currently, she is the Co-PI of the NIH-funded DAYTime study. This clinical trial is using CGM to improve Time-in-Range and reduce hypoglycemia in children and youth with type 1 diabetes in Uganda. She is pursuing a PhD at the University of Amsterdam, focusing on enhancing care for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in Uganda. Her research emphasizes improving glycemic control, addressing psychosocial barriers, and preventing diabetes complications.
The ISPAD-JDRF research fellowship will allow Dr. Piloya to comprehensively assess the burden of chronic microvascular and cardiovascular complications in Ugandan children and youth with T1D. Leveraging the infrastructure of DAYTime, this will be the first study in Sub Saharan Africa to combine comprehensive CGM data on metabolic control with complication screening.