Brigitte Frohnert

My research interest is in understanding the environmental factors which contribute to the development of islet autoimmunity and progression to type 1 diabetes, with the ultimate goal of preventing type 1 diabetes in the future. In 2014, I joined investigators on two large epidemiologic studies: DAISY (Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young), a cohort study based in Colorado which includes over 2,500 high-risk children and young adults identified during infancy and followed for up to seventeen years; and TEDDY (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young), a multi-center consortium with centers in Colorado, Washington, Georgia, Florida, Finland, Germany and Sweden, following over 8,500 children and collecting a wide array of data on dietary, infectious and other exposures. With a background in molecular biology and biochemistry, I am interested in the use and integration of ‘omics data (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.) to generate new insights into the disease processes.

As a clinician, I am interested in the management of children identified early in diabetes progression, often through participation in longitudinal studies, and the special challenges involved in the care of very young children with type 1 diabetes.