Our Research Members

Mary L’Abbé, C.M, PhD, is an expert in public health nutrition, nutrition policy, and food and nutrition regulations. Her research program on Food and Nutrition Policy for Population Health examines the nutritional quality of the food supply, food intake patterns at the national population level, and consumer research on food choices in association with risk of obesity and other chronic diseases, including diabetes. For example, some of her CIHR and other funded research activities include:

•  Assessing levels and types of sugars, including added sugars in the Canadian food supply
•  Diabetes education intervention and research investigating supports and barriers to diabetes care among multiethnic communities in Toronto (in collaboration with the Diabetes Education Centers at the North York General hospital and Mackenzie Health)
• Investigating national population-level dietary patterns associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular disease
• Examination of the application of different nutrient profiling methods to define “healthy foods” and their application in polices to support diet related NCD reduction
• Building tools to support improved consumer choice of healthier foods or to support nutrition interventions in primary care/disease prevention, e.g. Big Life Salt Calculator has been developed (http://www.projectbiglife.ca/sodium/) – A sugar app, One Sweet App, was developed and launched in 2015 and is currently being updated.
• Research on consumer attitudes and understanding and use of nutrition labelling and claims on food packages, front-of-pack labelling, and effects of different criteria in their development and application (note that L’Abbe’s consumer surveys include questions about health/disease status in order to link food choice/attitudes to particular diseases including diabetes) 

We have just recently received funding from the Sanofi-Pasteur – University of Toronto – Université Paris-Descartes International Collaborative Research Pilot and Feasibility Program on “Comparison of two Front of Pack food rating systems for identifying foods consistent with Canada’s Food Guide and Guidelines for diabetes prevention and management”

Nutrient sensing in the Gut and the Brain, Diabetes, Obesity, Glucose and Lipid metabolism.

The Lee lab has a primary interest in the regulation and perturbation during disease of the microvascular endothelial barrier. Using cell biology techniques and primary microvascular human endothelium and supplemented by animal models, we investigate the regulation of insulin transport out of the circulation.

Dr. Leiter has several research interests including clinical trials on the prevention of atherosclerosis, especially in diabetes, and the dietary and pharmacologic treatment of diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and obesity. He was an investigator in many of the landmark diabetes trials including the DCCT, ACCORD, and ADVANCE and is on the Executive/Steering Committees of many ongoing outcome trials in both the diabetes and lipid areas.

The Lewis lab has had a long interest in the mechanisms of various aspects of diabetic dyslipidemia, including postprandial lipemia, HDL lowering and hypertriglyceridemia, as well as the metabolic effects of free fatty acids on insulin action and secretion. Dr. Lewis and Adeli made the important observation that the intestine overproduces lipoproteins in insulin resistant states, elucidating a number of regulatory mechanisms of intestinal lipid mobilization and lipoprotein secretion. In his current funded work Dr. Lewis is determining, in integrative physiological studies in humans and animal models, the mechanisms of intestinal lipid mobilization and lipoprotein secretion. In addition, Dr. Lewis is the Principal Investigator of Diabetes Action Canada, one of the chronic disease networks funded through the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) Initiative, and undertakes translational research with active patient engagement.

Dr. Lipscombe’s research program is aimed at improving the care and outcomes of persons living with diabetes with a particular focus on women, and targeting special female populations at higher risk for diabetes who would benefit from more focused diabetes prevention strategies. Her specific priority areas of interest include the association between breast cancer and diabetes, pregnancy planning in women with diabetes, post-partum diabetes risk and prevention in women with gestational diabetes, and drug safety in seniors with diabetes.

Dr. Lovshin directs the Diabetes Complications Research Laboratory (DCRL), a new clinical investigation unit in the division of Endocrinology & Metabolism at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Lovshin’s research interests are focused on understanding the mechanisms of diabetes complications, with a specific focus on improving vascular health and reducing vascular complications and events associated with metabolic diseases including Type 1 and Type 2, and Obesity. Through clinical investigative techniques which span epidemiology to translational mechanistic clinical studies, Dr. Lovshin is interested in determining how changes in the cardio-renal axis contribute to heart and kidney complications in diabetes. Dr. Lovshin is also interested in changes in the diabetic retina and central nervous system and in determining how these pathophysiological changes contribute to complications in the eye and brain.

Obesity is the strongest risk factor for type 2 diabetes but many people with diabetes are not obese. Dr. Luk’s research focuses on identifying the signaling pathways linking obesity and diabetes, and determining the role of adipose tissue in metabolic syndrome.