AHRI Investigator Receives Prestigious American Diabetes Association Junior Faculty Development Award

The AdventHealth Translational Research Institute (TRI) is proud to announce that Dr. Justine Mucinski has received an American Diabetes Association (ADA) Junior Faculty Development Award, a highly competitive funding award designed to support promising early-career investigators as they establish independent research programs. Dr. Katie Whytock will serve as a collaborator on the project.

The three-year award will support research focused on understanding why older adults are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Adults over age 65 are nearly twice as likely to have type 2 diabetes as younger individuals, due in part to age-related changes in skeletal muscle that reduce the body's sensitivity to insulin, the hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar levels.

Dr. Mucinski's project, "Identifying Age-Related Transcriptional Signatures of Skeletal Muscle Insulin Sensitivity," seeks to uncover the biological mechanisms that contribute to insulin resistance in aging adults. Because skeletal muscle is one of the body's primary sites for glucose disposal, understanding why muscles become less responsive to insulin is critical to improving prevention and treatment strategies for type 2 diabetes.

The research will use advanced clinical and laboratory techniques to identify specific genes associated with insulin resistance in older adults. The team will then evaluate how exercise and periods of inactivity influence the gene signatures associated with insulin resistance. Researchers will also study the role of these genes in laboratory-grown muscle cells to better understand how they influence insulin sensitivity.

"Type 2 diabetes affects millions of people, and older adults are at particularly high risk," said Dr. Mucinski. "This award will allow us to better understand the biological factors that contribute to insulin resistance with aging and help identify new strategies to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes. I am grateful to the American Diabetes Association for supporting this work and excited about the potential impact it could have on the health of older adults."

Dr. Katie Whytock shares "I’m excited to collaborate with Dr. Mucinski on this project to better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle insulin resistance. By combining the gold-standard metabolic phenotyping performed at TRI with advanced bioinformatic approaches, we hope to identify novel molecular markers related to insulin resistance in our aging populations that can be modified with periods of physical activity/inactivity."

By identifying the biological pathways that drive insulin resistance, the research could help scientists develop new therapies to reduce diabetes risk, improve treatment outcomes, and support healthier aging.

The ADA Junior Faculty Development Award is among the organization's most respected career development programs, recognizing investigators with exceptional potential to make meaningful contributions to diabetes research. Awards are granted through a rigorous peer-review process that evaluates both scientific merit and investigator promise.

"My first grant was an ADA grant, and awards like these are often critical in helping launch independent faculty careers," said Dr. Bret Goodpaster, Scientific Director of the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute. "This recognition reflects the talent, dedication, and scientific excellence of Dr. Mucinski and her collaborators. We are incredibly proud of this accomplishment and look forward to the impact this work will have on the field."

This award represents an important milestone for both Dr. Mucinski and the AdventHealth research community, highlighting AHRI's commitment to developing the next generation of scientific leaders and advancing discoveries that improve the lives of patients living with diabetes.