Research News

Diabetes and obesity are two of the most pressing health challenges in North Carolina. More than 1 million North Carolinians live with diabetes, and over 2 million struggle with obesity. Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, amputations, and cardiovascular disease, significantly shortening lives and contributing billions of dollars in health care costs. … Read more

UNC researchers, including Seth Berkowitz, MD, MPH, and Darren DeWalt, MD, MPH, found that a monthly $40 food subsidy improved blood pressure among people facing food insecurity. The results were published in JAMA Internal Medicine. A first-of-its-kind clinical study shows that offering modest monthly grocery cards for produce leads to improvements in blood pressure compared … Read more

Evan Dellon, MD, MPH, a Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UNC and the Director of the Center for Esophageal Diseases and Swallowing, led a Phase 3 Trial on using Cendakimab for Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). His study was published in NEJM Evidence with positive findings. Cendakimab is a high-affinity monoclonal antibody that … Read more

From left to right: Saira Sheikh, MD, Yueh Lee, MD, PhD, Marc Niethammer, PhD A rheumatologist, neuroradiologist, and computer scientist have joined forces to blend medical expertise with AI/machine learning to reimagine the future of lupus diagnosis and care. Saira Sheikh, MD, the Linda Coley Sewell Distinguished Professor of Medicine at UNC and Chair of … Read more

John Buse, MD, the Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Director of the UNC Diabetes Care Center, co-authored STEP UP T2D an international trial. STEP UP T2D found that a higher maintenance dose of semaglutide (7.2 mg once weekly) leads to significantly greater weight loss and improved blood sugar control in adults with … Read more

Pictured are Dr. Robert Sandler and Julianne O’Daniel. Robert Sandler, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease (CGIBD), has announced the renewal of the Center’s P30 Center grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney … Read more

UNC-Chapel Hill has been announced as the recipient of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) award. Created by the Office of Research on Women’s Health in partnership with NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices, BIRCWH is a mentored career-development program designed to connect junior faculty to senior faculty … Read more

Shehzad Z. Sheikh, MD, PhD A groundbreaking study co-led by Shehzad Z. Sheikh, MD, PhD, professor of medicine in the UNC Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Matthew N. Poy, PhD, associate professor of medicine with Johns Hopkins University, reveals Cell Adhesion Molecule 1 (CADM1), a surface protein involved in cell-cell adhesion, is significantly elevated … Read more

Researchers from the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University aim to use a pig-based model to study esophageal diseases, a field where scientific understanding remains limited. Researchers use large animal models to help with therapy development, testing and translation. However, fully defined models of digestive diseases are still scarce. Within this field, … Read more

The University of North Carolina will serve as a study site for the vTv Therapeutics Inc. CATT1 Phase 3 trial  investigating cadisegliatin as an adjunctive treatment to insulin in adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Cadisegliatin is a potential first-in-class, oral, liver-selective glucokinase activator for T1D that has been granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the … Read more

Ria Dancel, MD Ria Dancel, MD, FACP, SFHM, FAAP, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the UNC Division of Hospital Medicine, collaborated with a group of academic teaching physicians to develop the first expert and evidence-based consensus on the core components of a point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum for internal medicine residency training in the United … Read more

Dr.Brad Drummond M. Bradley Drummond, MD, MHS, a Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Obstructive Lung Diseases Clinical and Translational Research Center at UNC, published a pilot study in the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation suggesting that digital inhaler technology may help predict worsening symptoms in COPD patients up … Read more