Carla Greenbaum, MD, has earned the George Eisenbarth Award for Type 1 Diabetes Prevention. This award, established by Breakthrough T1D (formerly known as JDRF), recognizes researchers who have made significant contributions to predicting and preventing type 1 diabetes (T1D).
“Carla has spent the last 40 years leading research that aims to accelerate the delivery of life-changing breakthroughs to prevent, treat and cure T1D, working tirelessly to make these goals a reality,” said BRI President Jane Buckner, MD.
Preventing T1D has been at the core of Dr. Greenbaum’s work throughout her career. Early on, she contributed to efforts to standardize the autoantibody testing used to identify people at increased risk for T1D, helping lay the groundwork for today’s screening and prevention efforts.
After joining BRI in 2000, Dr. Greenbaum played a key role in establishing BRI’s biorepositories, which have helped scientists understand how T1D begins and progresses — knowledge that helped make it possible to predict the disease. She led the development of BRI’s Diabetes Clinical Research Program, helping create a bridge between discoveries in the lab and innovative approaches to preventing and treating disease.
Dr. Greenbaum has provided critical leadership in advancing T1D prevention research through TrialNet, an international research network with the mission to prevent T1D and stop disease progression by preserving insulin production before and after diagnosis.
Dr. Greenbaum served as TrialNet’s Vice Chair for 12 years and the Chair for six years. During that time, she helped guide the landmark TN-10 trial, which showed that a drug called teplizumab could delay progression to clinical T1D in people at high risk. This work contributed to the drug’s eventual FDA approval as the first therapy to delay the onset of T1D. Teplizumab is the first medicine to delay any autoimmune disease and the research behind it shifted the paradigm from treating autoimmune diseases to predicting and preventing them.
“Carla has helped move the field from understanding and predicting T1D to actually testing ways to prevent it and delaying onset,” Dr. Buckner said. “Her work has not only transformed what’s possible in T1D, but also helped build a roadmap for predicting and preventing autoimmune diseases. BRI has been incredibly fortunate to have her as a colleague and leader.”
Dr. Greenbaum’s impact also includes the many scientists and staff she’s mentored throughout her career.
“Carla has been a caring mentor to many, myself included, and I would not be where I am today without her,” said Cate Speake, PhD, director of BRI’s Center for Interventional Immunology. “Her leadership, enthusiasm and collaborative nature have inspired the next generation of T1D researchers.”
