Kovler Clinical Trials Testing New Treatments, Advancing Science

Patients at the Kovler Diabetes Center don’t just benefit from diabetes research — they also help conduct it.

The center boasts a rich portfolio of clinical trials. These studies, in which human subjects are assigned different interventions addressing an illness in order to evaluate and compare their effects, are essential to developing new therapeutics. In addition to testing new drugs and devices, they provide a scientific basis for advising and treating patients.

Clinical trials can be valuable to patients, giving them access to new research treatments before they are widely available. There are no costs; everything from hospital visits to parking is covered. Participation is voluntary, and open to people who are not Kovler Diabetes Center patients.

The Kovler Diabetes Center is exploring different aspects of diabetes through a number of clinical studies.

My Diabetes, My Community

The Kovler Diabetes Center is collaborating on My Diabetes, My Community (MDMC), an NIH sponsored research trial led by Elbert Huang, MD, and Stacy Lindau, MD, that provides resources aimed at helping older patients throughout Chicagoland achieve their diabetes management goals. MDMC is currently enrolling 600 patients aged 60 and older. You can learn more about the study by visiting http://voices.uchicago.edu/mdmc.

Rare and Atypical Diabetes Network (RADIANT)

The Rare and Atypical DIAbetes NeTwork (RADIANT) trial, for which center director Louis Philipson, MD, PhD, and Siri Atma Greeley, MD, PhD, are the principal investigators, is discovering and defining rare and atypical forms of diabetes—a signature project of the Kovler Diabetes Center.

RADIANT is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). RADIANT is a network of universities, hospitals and clinics across the United States dedicated to better understanding atypical diabetes. Our team of academic institutions and scientists collaborate with physicians and healthcare groups to identify people with atypical diabetes and learn more about their health.

If you've been diagnosed by your doctor with diabetes, but do not fit the usual pattern of either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, you may be eligible to join RADIANT. 

TrialNet Type 1 Diabetes Research

TrialNet is an international network of leading academic institutions, endocrinologists, physicians, scientists and healthcare teams at the forefront of type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. They offer risk screening for relatives of people with T1D and innovative clinical studies testing ways to slow down and prevent disease progression. Screening is offered at no cost to relatives of people diagnosed with T1D. The University of Chicago is also participating in a number of innovative clinical studies offered by TrialNet.

Louis Philipson, MD, PhD, with Dimitra Skondra, MD, PhD serving as the Principal Ophthalmologist.

Vertex Study

UChicago Medicine is participating in a new clinical research study of an investigational infusion of islets in individuals who have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes with low blood sugar and impaired hypoglycemic awareness. In this study, islets manufactured from stem cells are infused into the liver with a goal of providing replacement cells producing insulin for cells that have been lost.

We are currently seeking participants aged 18-65 years old for a five-year trial.