Jessica Harding is co-investigator of a grant that will examine possible COVID-19/new-onset diabetes connection
SEPTEMBER 2022
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) of the NIH has awarded funding to "Risk of new-onset diabetes following COVID-19: A multiethnic cohort study of 1 million+ individuals across the life course," a data analysis study being conducted under the auspices of the Georgia Center for Diabetes Translation Research (GCDTR) and Kaiser Permanente.
The GCDTR is a collaboration of Emory University, Georgia Tech, and Morehouse School of Medicine dedicated to facilitating and growing diabetes translation research at Emory, its partner institutions, and regionally.
K.M. Venkat Narayan, MD, MSC, MBA, executive director of the Emory Global Diabetes Research Center, is the study's principal investigator; and epidemiologists Shivani Patel, MPH, PhD, of the Hubert Department of Global Health of Rollins School of Public Health; and Jessica Harding, PhD, of the Transplant Health Services and Outcomes Research Program of the Department of Surgery, will serve as co-investigators.
"While prior observations have suggested that COVID-19 may be associated with the risk of new-onset diabetes, rigorous epidemiological evidence is limited," says Dr. Harding. "This study will aim to establish a longitudinal cohort of individuals across the life course — children, pregnant women, adults — who developed diabetes following SARS-CoV-2 infection in order to better understand the pathophysiology and clinical course of post-COVID-19 diabetes."