# Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Research Training in Diabetes

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2022 · $190,202

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Diabetes is a global heath epidemic affecting close to 400M people worldwide. Even with rigorous
management increased risk for diabetic complications remains. Bioengineering approaches are providing
innovate technologies that are increasingly overcoming the current limitations in developing new
diagnostics, treatments and cures for diabetes and complications. However there is a shortage of a skilled
scientific workforce able to work on these developments. The University of Colorado is uniquely placed to
develop an innovative new program to train future scientists with the skills and knowledge to solve existing
and future problems in diabetes research and clinical care. This includes world-renowned research and
clinical programs in diabetes, particularly type1 diabetes; exceptional engineering research and training
programs; and bioengineering research and training that is fully integrated with the Medical campus. To
maintain the strong and growing areas of cooperation intersecting bioengineering and diabetes research we
propose an innovative new training program: Bioengineering Interdisciplinary Training for Diabetes
Research. The primary goals of this program are: 1). To attract high-quality trainees with
engineering/quantitative backgrounds; 2). To provide in-depth, multi-disciplinary research training for
predoctoral trainees integrating bioengineering and diabetes; and 3). To prepare trainees for transition to
individual fellowships and research careers in academia or industry. To effectively achieve these goals, our
research training will follow 3 core principles: a). That a successful bioengineering career requires an
intrinsically multi-disciplinary approach, with scientists equipped with skills covering a broad variety of fields;
b). That successful training of these scientists will require constant interactions between trainees and cross-
disciplinary mentors at all levels of research; and c). That developing such scientists requires an institutional
environment with breadth and depth, established interactions between engineering and clinical science, and
faculty committed to this training. Our innovative research training program will combine didactic and hands
on coursework, lab-based research, clinical experiences and career skills. Research areas will focus on true
strengths at the institution in which established interactions between bioengineering and diabetes are
present, including designing biomarkers and therapeutic interventions for diabetes and complication, clinical
trials, imaging diagnostics for diabetes and complications, biomaterials and cell-based therapies, and
artificial pancreas diabetes management. Our current outcomes achieved in bioengineering training,
including for under-represented populations; the depth of expertise in diabetes and engineering research;
the significant institutional support, and the wide range of facilities available make a compelling argument to
develop such a program at the Un...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10417042
- **Project number:** 5T32DK120520-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard KP Benninger
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $190,202
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10417042

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10417042, Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Research Training in Diabetes (5T32DK120520-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10417042. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*