On June 10th, Dr. Castano from our division lead a live, national, free Webinar for medical students across the country. The title of his webinar was “Growth and Puberty”. His purpose was to elevate the clinical knowledge of medical students on this important topic. The session was sponsored by the Pediatric Endocrine Society. Dr. Castano covered a range of important topics ranging from normal growth patterns in children and adolescent, to various medical disorders that disrupt puberty and growth. Thank you Dr. Castano for lending your expertise to help teach tomorrow’s physicians about these important topics.
In 2018, faculty from our division participated in a multicenter, observational study that added to growing evidence linking elevated glucose levels in children with type 1 diabetes to changes in brain structure. While the initial findings highlighted these associations, they could not determine how such changes might evolve over time. Now, the research team—including Drs. Tsalikian and Tansey from our division—has completed a long-term follow-up of the original study participants. The results, recently published in the journal Diabetes, are available via PubMed (link here) in abstract form. The follow-up spanned 6 to 8 years and revealed that the previously observed brain differences largely persisted. Although the magnitude of some differences diminished slightly, higher average blood glucose levels continued to correlate with more pronounced structural changes. These findings reinforce the importance of maintaining tight glycemic control to potentially mitigate long-term neurological impacts. As the cohort transitions into adulthood, continued monitoring will be essential to fully understand the long-term implications of these early brain changes.
Obesity and metabolic syndrome are known to negatively affect oral health, but the underlying mechanisms and early indicators remain unclear. To help bridge this knowledge gap, Dr. Curtis and Dr. Kanner from our division collaborated with scientists from the School of Dentistry led by Dr. Sukirth Ganesan. Together they conducted a study involving children and adolescents with healthy teeth and gums. Participants were grouped into three categories: normal-weight healthy, healthy obese, and obese with metabolic syndrome.
Saliva samples were collected from each participant and analyzed their bacterial, metabolic, and hormonal content. All three components showed distinct differences between the obese and normal-weight healthy groups. Notably, by integrating data from all three saliva components, researchers were able to identify individuals with metabolic syndrome.
These findings suggest the potential for developing non-invasive saliva-based tests to assess metabolic health—potentially even eliminating the need for some blood draws. Additionally, the results offer new insights into how obesity and metabolic syndrome may contribute to oral health issues. The study was published in the Journal of Dental Research, and the abstract is available on PubMed at this link.
Breakthrough T1D is a philanthropic, nonprofit organization that raises funds to support research aimed at curing, preventing, and better treating type 1 diabetes. Many of you may know the organization by its former name from before 2024, JDRF, the juvenile diabetes research foundation. On Saturday, May 10, Breakthrough T1D held its annual fundraising walk in Cedar Rapids. Our Division participated on the beautiful day by walking and by helping at informational booths. Our volunteers included: Dr. Pinnaro, Dr. Kanner; diabetes nurses Ashley, Haley and Haylee; and diabetes clinical trial research assistant Ashley. Thanks to everyone for their efforts and time on this important cause!
Haley, Ashley & Ashley at the 2025 Breakthrough T1D walk.
Years ago, Dr. Pesce started a monthly tradition of a divisional board review, where one faculty leads the division and rotating residents and students in tackling a few endocrine medical board-like questions. The sessions are light-hearted, jocular, informative, and the questions are usually very difficult. Here is a picture from May 5th’s session, led by Dr. Kanner. Incidentally, Dr. Palmer is holding Pretzel, a service dog who was visiting us.
The Division getting ready for some tough knowledge questions.
Dr. Catherina Pinnaro and her research team have now published a second report indicating benefits to reviewing diabetes device blood sugar data. The article is entitled “Adolescent-Initiated Retrospective Glucose Data Review is Associated With Improved Glycemia in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus”, and was just published as a peer reviewed research article in Pediatric Diabetes (pubmed Link; free fulltext Link). This paper expands upon her group’s prior related paper (previously reviewed in this blog here). Whereas the prior paper studied whether blood sugar levels improved when family-members reviewed their child’s blood sugar data, the current paper examines the impact when the child/adolescent reviews their own data. Importantly, blood sugar levels were significantly improved in those adolescents who reviewed their own blood glucose data. Co-authors on the work from our division included Drs. Palmer, Norris, and Tansey.
The knowledge base about human disease is exploding, yet there is so much that remains to be discovered. As pace of knowledge discovery quickens, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the entire field of endocrinology. For this reason, endocrine faculty often have areas of focus – diseases for which they help champion the cause. The Pediatric Endocrine Society has recognized the importance of this by creating nationwide “Special Interest Groups” or “SIGs” for a variety of focus areas. The SIGs enable interested faculty from across the country to collectively share knowledge and research. Here we recognize some of our faculty for their service and involvement with these SIGs. Thank you each for your service.
Dr. Alexandrou: Serves on the Turner syndrome SIG, and is a member of their advocacy group. Earlier this spring. Dr. Alexandrou presented journal club on Diabetes in Turner syndrome for this SIG.
Dr. Curtis: Has served on the obesity SIG.
Dr. Kanner: Serves on the lipid disorder SIG, working on an educational toolkit for pediatric patients affected by lipid disorders and their families.
Dr. Pinnaro: Serves as the research liaison for the Turner syndrome SIG.
Dr. Ramakrishna: Serves as the co-chair of the Adrenal SIG, whereby she organizes webinars, quarterly meetings, and advocates for injectable rescue steroid medications to be stocked in ambulances. She also is a member of the DSD SIG.
Self-guided learning is an important method for physicians, including endocrinologists, to continually enhance their knowledge. This is especially vital after formal training ends, as it helps endocrinologists keep up with their ever-evolving field. With this in mind, we are proud to acknowledge Dr. Pesce’s contributions that have developed self-study materials for pediatric endocrinologists. In collaboration with a handful of pediatric endocrinologists across the country, she helped create the 2025-2026 Pediatric Endocrine Self-Assessment Program. In particular, she served as a content expert, especially for knowledge related to pediatric thyroid conditions. The specific publication is
The 2025 Pediatric Research Day was held on the afternoon of April 11th, highlighting eight speakers, a “data blitz”, and a poster session. Our Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes was well represented. Two of our fellows had their abstracts selected for one of four speaker slots. Additionally, our faculty contributed to several poster abstracts. The fellow talks were as follows: Dr. Kyle Baum: “Impact of the incretin, retatrutide, on weight loss, lean body mass, and muscle physiology in mice”. Dr. Benjamin Palmer: “Assessing Sports Participation and Associated Barriers in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus”
Senior Fellow Dr. Palmer speaking at Research Day.Fellow Dr. Baum speaking at Research Day.
Almost immediately after birth, we begin burning fat for energy and warmth. Recently, members of our division studied whether this process is altered in infants with congenital disorders. The study focused on two specific disorders: congenital hypothyroidism and cystic fibrosis. The peer-reviewed study is now available online (PubMed link). The results indicate that infants with these disorders burn less fat than normal. Surprisingly, however, these infants burned relatively more of a specific fatty acid—linoleic acid. One possible explanation for this finding relates to higher levels of inflammation in these infants. This finding is particularly important for cystic fibrosis, as it may help explain why this condition often causes lifelong linoleic acid deficiency. The manuscript’s lead author is Dr. Pinnaro from our division, with Dr. Norris serving as the senior author.
