Alice Y.Y. Cheng MD, FRCPC

University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Dr. Cheng is an Endocrinologist at Trillium Health Partners and Unity Health Toronto and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto.  She has been involved with the development of the Diabetes Canada clinical practice guidelines since 2003 and served as Chair for the 2013 version.  Currently, she is an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Diabetes and immediate Past-Chair of the Professional Section of Diabetes Canada.  In recognition of her contribution, she has received the national Charles H. Best Award and the Gerald S. Wong Service Award from Diabetes Canada.  She is also the creator of The Med Ed Pledge – an initiative to increase Diversity & Inclusion in continuing medical education (www.theMedEdPledge.com)  

Kim Connelly

Keenan Research Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada

Dr. Kim Connelly is a Cardiologist and Scientist who is both nationally recognized as an expert in echocardiography, cardiovascular MRI and the impact of diabetes upon cardiac function and ventricular remodeling. Dr. Connelly runs a basic research laboratory at the Keenan Research Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital where he focuses upon basic mechanisms of disease – primarily around the role of pathological extracellular matrix accumulation with a focus upon translating discoveries into therapies in humans.

He has an H-index of 48 and i10-index of 158 (Google scholar), and his work has been cited >8100 times, with publications in journals such as the NEJM, Circulation, Journal of the American college of Cardiology, Circulation Research, Diabetes, Cell Metabolism and Lancet Endocrinology and Diabetes. His work is diverse covering clinical guidelines statements, clinical trials, and preclinical studies along the themes of ventricular remodeling, diabetes, magnetic resonance imaging and echocardiography. He is a member of the editorial board of various journals such as The Canadian Journal of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Diabetology. He has received funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation Canada, CIHR, Canadian Foundation of Innovation, Ministry of Ontario and industry sources, totally >$5 million as principal investigator. As a co-investigator, he has been part of >$20 million in funding, from the Ministry of Ontario, HSF, CIHR, CFI and industry sources.

Dr Connelly has been recognised for his contributions to science by being awarded a HSF clinician scientist award, a CIHR New Investigator Award, an Early Researcher Award from the Ministry of Ontario, the SC Verma award and the Insulin 100 emerging leader award to celebrate 100 years since the discovery of insulin at University of Toronto, as well as Canadian Cardiovascular Congress YIA 2012. He is current chair of the Canadian Cardiovascular guideline and was chair of the macrovascular complication section for Diabetes Canada CPG 2018.

Dr. Kim Connelly is the director of the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science and holds the Keenan Chair in Research Leadership.

Kamlesh Khunti

Diabetes Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Kamlesh Khunti is Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester, UK. He is Co-Director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, Director of the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in Applied Research Collaborations (ARC) East Midlands, Director of Centre for Ethnic Health Research and Director of The Real World Evidence Unit. He has led a programme of work during the Covid-19 pandemic and is a member of UK Governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and Chair of the SAGE Ethnicity Sub-panel. Professor Khunti is also Director of the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in Applied Research Collaborations (ARC) East Midlands, Director of Centre for Ethnic Health Research and Director of The Real World Evidence Unit. He has published over 1000 peer-reviewed articles. He is also Honorary Visiting Professorial Fellow with Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne. He has won numerous awards nationally and internationally.

John Wilding

University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

Professor John Wilding leads clinical research into Obesity, Diabetes and Endocrinology at the University of Liverpool, where he has worked since 1996, after training in Southampton and London.  His clinical interests focus on caring for people with diabetes and obesity and he leads specialist services for obesity at Aintree University Hospital – designated a Centre for Obesity Management by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.  

John’s research team focusses on developing and evaluating treatments for obesity and diabetes. He has published over 350 papers, chapters and review articles, including clinical trials in diabetes and obesity, studies of adipocyte biology and metabolism.

He chairs the National Clinical Research Network Metabolic and Endocrine Speciality Group.  He is a past Chair of the UK Association for the Study of Obesity, a member of the Royal College of Physicians Advisory Group on Nutrition, Weight and Health and President of the World Obesity Federation.  

Filip K. Knop

Center for Clinical Metabolic Research at Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen & Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Filip K. Knop, MD PhD, is a professor of endocrinology and director of Center for Clinical Metabolic Research at Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, and consultant endocrinologist at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen. Prof. Knop has been involved in diabetes and metabolic research since his fellowship at The Distinguished Gifford Laboratories for Diabetes Research, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 1999 (supervised by Christopher B. Newgard). Knop received his MD degree in 2002 and his PhD in medical sciences in 2007 from University of Copenhagen (supervisor: Jens J. Holst). Knop’s research centres on human metabolism, the pathophysiology of obesity and related disorders including type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, regulation of appetite and food intake, and the therapeutic potential of factors involved in these processes. The Knop laboratory has reported several novel findings describing the integrative role of the gut and the liver in human (patho)physiology. Prof. Knop has authored 440 peer-reviewed scientific publications and he has received multiple honours for his research (e.g. named “Rising star” by the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in 2010, the DPLU/LUDC Nordic Prize for an Outstanding Young Diabetes Investigator (2011), Johan Quentin and Wife’s Prize for Outstanding Research (2014), The Capital Region of Denmark’s Global Excellence Prize (2014), The Thomsen Prize (2015), The Niels Schwartz Sørensen Prize (2017), The Danish Odd Fellowship’s Research Prize (2017), the European Journal of Endocrinology Prize 2018, and EASD’s Minkowski Prize 2019). He referees for high-impact journals including The Lancet, British Medical Journal, Diabetes and Diabetologia and he is a member of several professional societies and committees.

Tina Vilsbøll

Center for Diabetes Research at Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Professor Vilsbøll has been involved in diabetes research since 1997, and in 2004 she established the Center for Diabetes Research at Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark now part of Steno. Her research is focused on the pathophysiology of obesity, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, regulation of appetite and food intake, and the utilisation of incretins as therapeutics. Integration of the gut in the understanding of human glucose metabolism has become a major focus in her lab over recent years. Professor Vilsbøll is an experienced teacher and supervises several PhD and medical students conducting diabetes research. She is a frequently invited speaker at international meetings. In addition to her teaching and research posts, Professor Vilsbøll is a member of numerous professional societies and committees, and referees for several international journals.