The ADA’s Pathway to Stop Diabetes® (Pathway) flips the script on traditional research funding opportunities. The goal is to identify the new generation of scientists at the peak of their creativity and provide them with the freedom, flexibility, autonomy, and resources they need to remain on the road to breakthrough discoveries. Awardees receive a combination of financial support and one-on-one professional mentoring to make breakthrough discoveries in translational science that lead to breakthrough discoveries and therapies in diabetes.

This year’s Pathway to Stop Diabetes symposium at the 84^th Scientific Sessions features the latest results from three awardees on Friday, June 21, from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET in the West Hall B3-4 of the Orange County Convention Center.

• Kathleen A. Page, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, received a 2014 award to explore Neural mechanisms in maternal-fetal programming for obesity and diabetes.
• Paul Cohen, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at The Rockefeller University, received a 2017 grant for Dissecting the role of beige fat in metabolic homeostasis.
• Debora Sobreira, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Human Genetics, University of California Los Angeles Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, received a 2024 award for Linking variants to function: Understanding the genetics of type 2 diabetes through multi-omic data.

The symposium will be livestreamed on the virtual meeting platform for registered meeting participants and will be available on-demand following the 84^th Scientific Sessions.

The Pathway program has supported 39 researchers since it was launched in 2014. At least 11 recipients have been featured speakers at the Scientific Sessions, presenting their groundbreaking research including harnessing crosstalk between bacteria and the immune system to tackle type 1 diabetes and identifying genetic risk factors for type 2 diabetes specific to Africans.

Since the program’s inception, Pathway awardees have filed at least 46 invention disclosures and patent applications, launched at least 16 start-ups, and published more than 300 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.

Nominations are now open for awards to start in 2025. Applications are due by Wednesday, July 17, with award notifications scheduled for Monday, December 2.

The call for nominations will prioritize translational applications that move knowledge and discovery from basic research to its eventual translation into patient and population benefits. The ideal applicant will propose innovative research that will be an important step toward the eventual goal of improving the lives of people who are at risk of diabetes or already living with the disease. As the name implies, the pathway to this impact must be clear.

The Pathway program offers two award categories.

The Pathway to Stop Diabetes Accelerator award provides flexible, long-term salary and research support to early career researchers who are proposing innovative and ambitious diabetes-related research programs. Applicants have distinguished themselves as exceptionally talented and promising research investigators.

The Pathway to Stop Diabetes Initiator award supports early career researchers who have distinguished themselves during their research training as exceptionally talented and promising investigators. Applicants have demonstrated a high likelihood of establishing successful, independent research programs and making seminal contributions in diabetes research.

New this year, ADA is accepting up to two nominations per institution with one nomination spanning basic through preclinical research, and one nomination spanning clinical through public health research. More information is available at Pathway to Stop Diabetes: Call for Nominations.