# Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Training in Diabetes Research

> **NIH NIH T32** · PURDUE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $184,675

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
Diabetes is a debilitating and burdensome public health problem, affecting an estimated 29.1 million men,
women, and children (9.3% of total population) in the U.S. alone. Patients with this and other related metabolic
disorders are burdened with devastating quality of life and health consequences, making the need for proper
disease management paramount. As a result, there is an urgent demand for transformative technologies that
provide both physicians and patients with more options to prevent, diagnose, treat, and cure diabetes,
metabolic diseases, and their complications. Furthermore, an interdisciplinary workforce is needed to
accelerate development and delivery of these cutting-edge technologies to the clinic and market. The
Bioengineering Interdisciplinary Training in Diabetes Research (BTDR) Program, which was initiated in 2013,
was strategically designed to meet this need. A notable aspect of the program is that it integrates the strength
in engineering education and technology development found at Purdue with excellence in diabetes research
found at Indiana University School of Medicine, yielding an uncommon cross-fertilization. The mission of the
BTDR program is to develop the next-generation interdisciplinary workforce that innovates, designs, and
translates bioengineering technologies to advance the mechanistic understanding, prevention, and treatment
of diabetes and its complications. The aims of the BTDR program are to: 1) recruit highly talented students in
engineering, physical sciences, computational sciences, analytical chemistry, pharmacology, physiology, and
endocrinology with strong research backgrounds and commitment to innovative technology development and
diabetes related research; 2) ensure that the next generation of interdisciplinary educators, scientists, policy
makers, and physicians includes individuals from diverse ethnic, social, economic, and regional backgrounds,
maximizing the scope and breadth of societal impact; and 3) engage students in a novel training experience
that integrates basic research, innovation, design, entrepreneurship, and translation, along with vertical
mentoring, to develop an integrated workforce that is equipped to accelerate advanced diagnostics and
therapeutics to market. The proposed training program provides training pathways for six predoctoral students
(two years support per student) from various engineering, physical science, and medical science disciplines,
culminating in PHD or MD-PHD degrees. BTDR offers an uncommon interdisciplinary curriculum and rigorous
hands-on training focused on technology design and translation guided by faculty with expertise in the cross-
cutting areas of Therapeutic Cell & Drug Delivery, Biosensing & Biomaging, Informatics & Modeling, and
Molecular Mechanisms & Drug Targets. Trainee outcomes include the ability to operate beyond hypothesis-
driven research, incorporating principles of engineering design, standardization and validation, r...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10005351
- **Project number:** 5T32DK101001-08
- **Recipient organization:** PURDUE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Carmella Evans-Molina
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $184,675
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-09-04 → 2023-09-03

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10005351

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10005351, Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Training in Diabetes Research (5T32DK101001-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10005351. Licensed CC0.

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