Elvira Isganaitis, MD, MPH
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Pediatric Diabetes, Type 1 Diabetes
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Integrative Physiology and Metabolism
Assistant Investigator and Staff Physician
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Elvira Isganaitis's clinical interests include pediatric diabetes (type 1, type 2 and monogenic), the prevention of childhood obesity and diabetes, and general pediatric endocrinology. She received her MD degree from McGill University in Montreal, after which she obtained a Master's in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, followed by residency training in general pediatrics at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and a subspecialty fellowship in pediatric endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Isganaitis' overarching career goal is the prevention of childhood obesity and diabetes and their complications. She is particularly interested in the role of early life risk factors such as maternal and paternal obesity, birth weight, and postnatal nutrition as contributors to childhood obesity. Her research uses novel “-omics” platforms such as transcriptomics, metabolomics and inaccessible human tissues such as umbilical cord blood, breast milk, and placenta to discover the mechanisms by which early life exposures contribute to future metabolic disease.
She currently divides her time between patient care in the Joslin Pediatric Clinic, basic research on cellular and epigenetic mechanisms of developmental programming and clinical trials for type 1 and type 2 diabetes in youth.
My research focuses on how environmental and nutritional exposures during early development contribute to later risk of diabetes and obesity. For example, infants born to mothers with diabetes or high pre-pregnancy BMI may be at increased risk for future obesity and diabetes. I am interested in the role of birth weight, maternal hormones and metabolites, breast milk composition, and epigenetic factors in childhood obesity and diabetes risk. Another research area focuses on the effects of paternal BMI and diabetes control on epigenetic marks in his offspring.
Research Highlights
- Effects of maternal obesity and diabetes on childhood obesity risk
- Paternal epigenetic factors in childhood obesity and diabetes
- Effects of human milk composition on infant body composition and metabolism
- Contributors to excess fetal growth in pregnancies complicated by Type 1 diabetes
- Joslin Family Biobank
- Clinical trials in pediatric Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
Medical School: McGill University
Fellowship: Pediatric Endocrinology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Residency: General Pediatrics, University of California - San Francisco
Board Certification: Pediatric Endocrinology, American Board of Pediatrics
2010 K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (NICHD)
2010 Clinical Scholar Award (Pediatric Endocrine Society)
2015 Boston Nutrition and Obesity Research Core Pilot and Feasibility Grant
2016 BADERC Pilot Grant Award 2018 R21 Research grant (NICHD)
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