Endocrinology Expert Appointed to Editorial Board for Diabetes Care

Dandona, UB Distinguished Professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in the treatment of diabetes and vascular disease. 

Dandona will serve on the Diabetes Care editorial board for three years and will review at least 10 papers per year for the journal. 

He has previously served on the editorial boards of Diabetes Care and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Additionally, he founded the journal Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders.

Dandona, a former Rhodes Scholar, has authored over 550 peer reviewed publications and more than 1,000 additional publications. 

He is an expert in the treatment of insulin resistance, and he discovered the anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects of insulin. His group was the first to describe the pro-inflammatory effects of high fat and carbohydrates in fast food meals and the non-inflammatory nature of high fruit and fiber meals.

His group has made other discoveries, including the occurrence of low testosterone levels in male patients with Type 2 diabetes. They have found, through treating these patients with testosterone, that the hormone exerts an anti-inflammatory and insulin sensitizing action.

Dandona has developed UB's endocrinology fellowship into one of the two largest endocrinology training programs in the United States. “The Mayo Clinic has a program similar in size to ours at UB,” he notes.

The program gives fellows substantial exposure to research, he says. “We have grant funding of over $7 million, and we are continuously engaged in studies.”

Fellows and faculty members present at meetings for organizations including the ADA and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE).

“This year at the AACE meeting, one of the fellows, Dr. Manisha Garg, had a poster that was amongst the six best,” says Dandona. 

Garg presented five additional posters, and one of her case reports, “Acute Flare of Pretibial Myxedema After Radioactive Iodine Ablation in Patient of Grave’s Disease,” was selected for the honor of guided tour for oral presentation.

“Dr. Dandona’s mentoring has made a huge difference in my research,” says Garg. “Under his mentorship, I was able to get the prestigious Endocrine Fellows Foundation Endocrine Research Grant."

“He is an excellent mentor and inspires me to continue learning with an open and positive mind,” she says.

Garg and other fellows received additional honors at the Department of Medicine’s third annual Research Day.

Garg received recognition for her oral presentation on the combination of insulin, liraglutide and dapagliflozin as a Type 1 diabetes therapy. Anshu Alok, MBBS, won an award for his case report titled “Severe Hypocalcaemia After Single Dose of Denosumab in a Patient with Osteomalacia Secondary to Long Standing Vitamin D Deficiency (CRF).”

Fellows also attended this year’s Endocrine Society’s meeting. The society honored Kadapalakere Reddy, MBBS, with a Helmsley Charitable Trust Abstract Award for research he presented on metastatic germ cell testicular tumors and high testosterone levels in a patient with Type 1 diabetes.

Dandona, a recipient of the University at Buffalo Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence, has mentored current leaders in diabetes health care and research. 

“Consistently, our fellows perform outstandingly well,” he says. “We give them thorough training in clinical endocrinology, and when they go out into the world, they have no difficulty finding positions and jobs.”

Two fellows who recently graduated will be entering positions as chiefs of diabetes services in major hospital systems, Dandona notes. 

“Here at UB, attending physicians in the department are my former fellows, and it's like one large family,” he adds.

Dandona mentors residents in addition to fellows. “They rotate through, and many of them do research projects with us,” he says. 

“I felt very proud last year when one of the residents who worked with us — Dr. Akshata Desai, now a fellow in our program — gave a presentation at the AACE meeting and received a Young Investigator award,” he emphasizes.

Dandona also teaches medical students. “I give them lectures in the areas of diabetes and obesity,” he explains.

“Many people in Buffalo and throughout the country are not aware that Buffalo has the finest Type 1 diabetes care in the world,” says Dandona.

Dandona is the founder of the Diabetes and Endocrinology Center of Western New York. His clinical team has helped prevent the complications of diabetes in patients. 

“Our standards of care are the highest anywhere. We have not had a single case of a chronic diabetic foot ulcer, major gangrene or amputation since 1997, and we’ve not had a case of end stage kidney failure since 2001,” he says.

“We are now reversing painful neuropathy and kidney damage in diabetic patients. No other major center can claim similar standards of care. Many people do not realize this level of excellence is available in Buffalo,” he emphasizes. 

“We need to aggressively disseminate this fact.”