NIH awards UF veterinarian five-year grant to study canine diabetesAugust 24, 2018Allison O'Kell, DVM, a small animal internal medicine specialist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, has received a Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health in support of her studies relating to canine diabetes. The five-year grant, known as a K08, will support Dr. O'Kell's career and research project. "The overall goal of my research is to study the causes of diabetes in the dog," O'Kell said. "We hope that the work will benefit dogs with this disease, but also to help us better understand whether studying the disease in dogs may be a novel way to understand the disease in humans." The disease has been increasing in prevalence over time in both dogs and humans, emphasizing the importance of research to determine the underlying causes of the disease as well as methods for prevention and treatment, she added. O'Kell's primary mentor is Mark Atkinson, PhD, the American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar for Diabetes Research and Jeffrey Keene Family Professor in the UF College of Medicine. Atkinson also directs the UF Diabetes Institute and has been investigating human Type 1 diabetes for …
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