An American Diabetes Association (ADA) program provides funding for early-career scientists to conduct groundbreaking research.
By Jenna Hughes
Insulin, a manufactured type of hormone that patients with diabetes use to manage their condition, was discovered more than 100 years ago. While insulin therapy for patients with diabetes is lifesaving, it is not a cure. Today, it remains the only treatment option for the disease.
Despite the many medical advances in diabetes treatment over the years, its diagnosis in the U.S. has increased from under 1% in 1957, to one in ten Americans currently living with diabetes today, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The cost of treating diagnosed diabetes in the U.S. is a staggering $245 billion each year, per the ADA.
Researchers have made progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, but ongoing funding and resource constraints have led to disparities in research talent, with many early-career researchers entering the industry to find that research dollars are scarce.
Designed to address these challenges, the ADA launched the Pathway to Stop Diabetes® program in 2014. The program provides flexible, long-term funding that empowers scientists to pursue bold, new ideas without the constraints of traditional project-based grants.
“The Pathway to Stop Diabetes program is the American Diabetes Association’s flagship research initiative, designed to drive transformative progress in our understanding of diabetes by investing in exceptional scientific talent,” said Dr. Marlon Pragnell, Vice President, Research & Science at the American Diabetes Association. “While recognizing an applicant’s prior accomplishments and the strength of the proposed project, the program places a strong emphasis on the investigator’s potential to shape the diabetes field by deliberately
investing in early-career scientists at a critical point in their development. It provides junior investigators with the stability needed to launch independent research programs, generate foundational data, and build scientific credibility.”
Pathway program aims to accelerate research discovery by supporting innovative ideas and transformational approaches that will lead to ground-breaking discoveries in diabetes prevention, management, and cures.
Supporting science
Since its launch more than a decade ago, Pathway to Stop Diabetes program has supported the research of 50 scientists whose work is reshaping how diabetes is understood and treated.
The work of these scientists is vital – factors such as low compensation and reimbursement rates compared with other specialties, high medical school debt, and more contribute to gaps within diabetes research and care.
Along with preexisting care delivery gaps, senior, well-seasoned scientists are generally better positioned to compete for large federal awards than researchers who are just establishing their independent careers, according to the ADA.
“The situation puts early-career researchers in the tough spot of needing existing findings to secure funding but having no support with which to generate such data,” said Pragnell. “This scientific ‘Catch 22’ can discourage innovation and slow the entry of fresh, bold ideas into the field.”
Pathway shifts the research focus from past accomplishments to future potential, intentionally investing in promising early-career scientists before they are fully established.
“Pathway has measurably strengthened the diabetes research pipeline while accelerating discoveries that are informing new strategies for prevention, treatment, and understanding of the disease,” said Pragnell. “Alumni of the program are now at the forefront of diabetes research efforts; most lead independent laboratories, secure major national funding, and publish highly influential discoveries in peer-reviewed journals.”
Each Pathway award provides up to $1.625 million to researchers over five to seven years and offers long-term, flexible funding. This structure provides investigators financial independence, reducing the need to continually seek grants. It also allows them to adapt, expand or redirect their research as new insights arise.
Seeking exceptional research talent, the Pathway program is structured to identify and support the strongest candidates nationwide through a competitive institutional nomination model.
“Each institution may submit up to two nominations annually: one spanning basic through preclinical research and one spanning clinical through public health research; ensuring that only top candidates are put forward and that a diverse range of expertise contributes to the diabetes research ecosystem,” said Pragnell.
The Pathway to Stop Diabetes program includes two award types: Initiator Awards, which support early-career researchers still in their training phase, and Accelerator Awards, which support independent faculty who have demonstrated productivity in diabetes research but have not yet received substantial federal funding support.
Shaping the future of diabetes care
Research breakthroughs help to further healthcare’s understanding of diabetes as a disease, and hold the potential to transform the treatment of the condition and improve patient care delivery.
“The Pathway to Stop Diabetes program advances the ADA’s mission of preventing, treating and ultimately curing diabetes by empowering scientists to pursue bold, innovative, ever-evolving, high-impact research,” said Pragnell. Pathway Award recipients have published reports of their research findings in ADA’s journal Diabetes in the Pathway to Stop Diabetes Collection.
One Pathway to Stop Diabetes grantee, Dr. Sarah Stanley, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Bone Disease and Neuroscience, at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, focuses her research on the role of the nervous system in glucose regulation, specifically exploring how problems with glucose-sensing neurons in the amygdala contribute to the development of diabetes.
Using novel approaches in animal models, her work examines how both central and peripheral neural circuits influence metabolic control, and new ways in which neural pathways can be harnessed to treat type 2 diabetes.
“The Pathway to Stop Diabetes program is poised to shape the long-term landscape of diabetes care by strengthening a sustainable pipeline of innovative researchers committed to tackling the disease,” said Pragnell.
Additionally, through a Pathway grant, Dr. Michael Stitzel, Professor at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), and his team researched pancreatic cells from non-diabetic, prediabetic, and diabetic people, and found that dozens of unexpected genes are strongly linked to type 2 diabetes.
“Based on our findings, we hypothesize diabetes develops at the cellular level in 5 potential stages or events,” said Dr. Stitzel. “First, high blood sugar forces beta-cells to work harder. This leads to compensatory changes that seem to include ramping up nerve receptors to boost insulin production.”
Dr. Stitzel says that the research, in terms of the findings on neuroreceptor signaling and vitamin A metabolism, was ultimately surprising. His team hopes these validated findings help to advance an overall understanding of diabetes pathology.
“The ADA’s Pathway program seeks high-risk, high-reward projects with transformative potential,” said Dr. Stitzel. “The Pathway model trusts the awardees, based on a previous record, to effectively pursue the most exciting findings, stratify risk-reward opportunities, and circumvent or overcome technical and conceptual barriers encountered over the course of the project.”
Dr. Stitzel says that the Pathway plays at least three critical roles to accelerate meaningful change at scale, “First, it seeks and funds high-risk, high-reward proposals that could be paradigm-shifting in our understanding of diabetes risk, progression and outcomes. Second, with components focused on young and early-stage scientific investigators, it provides programmatic foundations and funding at a particularly sensitive period in scientists’ career trajectory. Finally, by building connections and facilitating interactions both between Pathway awardees and with established investigators in the Pathway Mentor Advisory Group, researchers have made and continue to make seminal contributions to the field.”
Pathway also supports clinical and implementation science. Dr. Anna Kahkoska, a Pathway to Stop Diabetes grantee and Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, researches principles that translate directly into clinical practice. Her research addresses diabetes distress in primary care settings, helping ensure that scientific advances translate into meaningful improvements in care and long-term quality of life for people living with diabetes.
This freedom to conduct unrestricted, collaborative research drives discoveries that would not otherwise be possible.
“Discovery requires freedom to explore unproven ideas and the freedom to follow unexpected findings,” said Dr. Stitzel.
By providing research support, the Pathway program accelerates career independence, ensuring that innovative new voices can contribute meaningfully to the future of diabetes research.
“While no single research project is guaranteed to succeed, the program’s rigorous selection process and strong emphasis on mentorship and long-term support significantly increase the likelihood of meaningful breakthroughs,” said Pragnell. “Healthcare leaders should be watching the progress of the Pathway to Stop Diabetes grantees closely, as they represent some of the brightest and most promising minds in the field.”
Critical roles
The Pathway to Stop Diabetes:
1. Funds high-risk, high-reward research aimed at breakthrough, paradigm-shifting advances in understanding diabetes risk, progression, and outcomes.
2. Supports young and early-career scientists with targeted funding and structured programs during a critical stage of their professional development.
3. Builds a collaborative research network by connecting awardees with each other and with established experts through a Mentor Advisory Group, driving ongoing field-wide contributions.