Raghu Mimira, MD, PhD was elected to the prestigious Association of American Physicians. Dr. Mirmira is an innovative diabetes researcher and rare visionary whose leadership has raised the caliber of basic science and translational research among his peers. Dr. Mirmira is Professor of Medicine in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. He is the founding Director of the Translational Research Center and serves as Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine. Additionally, he serves as Director and PI for the Diabetes Research and Training Center.
Dr. Mirmira’s pioneering work in the early 2000s introduced the concept that chromatin states in beta-cells govern the transcriptional responses that regulate their glucose sensing and insulin secretory phenotypes. His subsequent work linked these transcriptional responses to translation through the metabolism of polyamines. His recent research has since advanced these concepts to disease pathogenesis, heralded by a groundbreaking paper proposing that the molecular response of beta-cells to stress signals initiates the autoimmune reaction in type 1 diabetes (T1D). This concept is now under rigorous investigation across multiple laboratories and is central to the NIH Human Islet Research Network. In the last few years Dr. Mirmira has extended this work to study the interaction between beta-cells and macrophages in diabetes and specifically defined the contribution of pathways mediated by polyamines, 12-lipoxygenase, and PERK in T1D pathogenesis. He has translated his fundamental concepts to clinical application, highlighted by a trial of a polyamine biosynthesis inhibitor in recent-onset T1D.
Over the past four years, he has published nearly 70 papers and obtained multiple NIH awards for his research. His commitment to training and creating an environment to promote translational diabetes research is reflected in his leadership of two T32 awards and the renewal of the diabetes center NIH P30 award at UChicago. In recognition of his exceptional leadership and research, Dr. Mirmira was awarded the prestigious 2023 Albert Renold Award from the American Diabetes Association.