Josephine Li, MD
Clinical Director, MGH Diabetes Center
Mass General Brigham/Harvard Medical School
Featured in the Session: Pharmacogenomic Responses in Diabetes: From Mice to Medications
When
Sunday, June 7
at 8:00 a.m.
Where
343 (Level 3)
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
What is your presentation about?
My presentation focuses on the pharmacogenomics of GLP-1 receptor agonists. Although these medications have transformed diabetes and obesity care, there is substantial interindividual variability in glycemic response, weight loss, and side effect profiles. The presentation reviews the latest research leveraging human genetics, biobank-linked electronic health records, and clinical trials to better understand the drivers of this variability and how they may inform more targeted treatment approaches.
How do you hope your presentation will impact diabetes research or care?
The goal is to highlight how genetic and biologic insights may help move care toward a more precise and individualized approach to diabetes treatment selection. Improving our understanding of why patients respond differently to incretin-based therapies could eventually help reduce the current trial-and-error approach to prescribing, improve outcomes, and minimize unnecessary side effects and treatment delays.
How did you become involved with this area of diabetes research or care?
My interest in this field stemmed from observations in clinic: some patients would have dramatic benefits from a small dose of medication, while others would struggle with side effects or see very little response. Patients would often ask why we could not better predict that ahead of time. Those experiences motivated me to study this problem through the lens of genetics, with the long-term goal of translating these insights into meaningful changes in clinical care.