Scripps Research assistant professor receives American Diabetes Association award

ADA’s $1.3 million grant will support the Droujinine lab’s research of interorgan dialogue to develop therapeutics for diabetes management.

February 11, 2025

LA JOLLA, CA—Ilia Droujinine, PhD, assistant professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Scripps Research, has been awarded the American Diabetes Association’s Pathway to Stop Diabetes Accelerator Award to uncover new therapeutics for diabetes management.

More than 38 million people, or nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population, have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—highlighting the need for innovative and effective research and treatments. The ADA is a network made up of more than half a million volunteers and 12,000 health care professionals that pushes for continued research, education and advocacy of diabetes. ADA’s Pathway to Stop Diabetes initiative aim to accelerate research of transformative approaches to prevent, manage and cure diabetes.

The Accelerator award will support Droujinine’s research for up to five years through a $1.3 million grant. The award is designed for early-career researchers who are in the beginning stages of successful and sustainable diabetes research programs.

“I believe that unraveling the intricate network of communication between organs is key to understanding and treating diabetes,” says Droujinine. “I am grateful for the support of the American Diabetes Association Pathway to Stop Diabetes Accelerator Award, which will allow my lab to identify the secreted mediators driving this interorgan dialogue, unlocking new therapeutic opportunities for diabetes management.”

At Scripps Research, Droujinine’s lab researches the body’s interorgan communication networks, how the human body achieves homeostasis—or the body’s healthy, stable state—and how altering these networks can lead to disease development. His lab has developed a critical platform to uncover how secreted proteins that are produced by one organ and travel to another through the blood communicate during biological and physiological processes. The lab’s work has the potential to inform future strategies to treat metabolic disease, like diabetes.

Droujinine has received many awards and honors for his research, including the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation Start-Up Grant, Curebound Discovery Award, American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Research Scholar Award, Collaborative Innovation Fund at Scripps Research, the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research and AFAR Grants for Junior Faculty, Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation Award, ASBMB Annual Meeting Presentation Award, the Herbert Tabor Young Investigator Award from the Journal of Biological Chemistry and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the HMS Innovation Grant Program Research Award from Harvard Medical School and the Alumni Gold Medal from the University of Waterloo.

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