The Johns Hopkins Pediatric Diabetes Center has a growing clinical research program.

Scott Blackman, M.D., Ph.D. is an associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and an affiliate of the Department of Genetic Medicine. He sees patients with all types of endocrine disorders, and directs the Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis-Related Diabetes program. His research interests include the genetic and non-genetic causes of cystic fibrosis-related diabetes and other endocrine complications of cystic fibrosis. He is a PI of the Cystic Fibrosis Genome Project, a consortium of five studies aimed at discovering genetic modifiers of cystic fibrosis.

Janet Crane, M.D. is director of the Pediatric Bone Health Clinic and a faculty member of the Center for Musculoskeletal Research. Her basic science/translational research efforts are devoted to understanding the cause of osteoporosis/skeletal fragility in childhood and identifying treatment targets. Dr. Crane's lab focuses on how manipulations of the bone marrow microenvironment promote bone formation.

Talia Alyssa Hitt, MD, MPH is an assistant professor of pediatrics whose research focuses on the development and progression of pediatric type 2 diabetes, as well as the innovative therapies for it. Dr. Hitt is studying the relationship between insufficient sleep and type 2 diabetes in adolescents. In 2021, Dr. Hitt was awarded a supplemental award to a 2018 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases R01 award studying cardiometabolic risk among South Asian adolescents compared with African American and White peers. Dr. Hitt has additionally studied the clinical implementation of new therapeutics in pediatric diabetes care.

Sheela N. Magge, M.D., M.S.C.E., is the Director of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, and a clinician investigator dedicated to improving the lives of children with type 2 diabetes, obesity and insulin resistance, as well as the cardiovascular implications of these conditions. She is interested in the effects of differential body composition on the risks for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  She has served as the principal investigator for an NIH NICHD R01 study of cardiometabolic risk and obesity in adolescents with Down syndrome, and is currently the principal investigator of an NIH NIDDK R01 award studying cardiometabolic risk among South Asian adolescents compared with African-American and white peers. Thus, she performs patient-oriented research in pediatric obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease risk.

Risa Wolf, M.D.is an associate professor of pediatrics and the director of the Pediatric Diabetes Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is an NIH-funded investigator with research focused on using innovative technologies to improve outcomes in pediatric diabetes. Dr. Wolf is the PI of the ACCESS trials implementing autonomous AI diabetic retinopathy screening in the pediatric population, and has conducted studies on diagnostic accuracy, validation and cost-effectiveness of AI for retinopathy screening. She is also the PI of an NIDDK funded study to improve diabetes technology uptake in individuals with diabetes.

Dr. Wolf is a co-investigator for Trialnet and leads the clinical program for patients with early stages of type 1 diabetes. Dr. Wolf is a core faculty member of the Hopkins Business of Health Initiative (HBHI) at the Carey School of Business and co-leads a monthly webinar series on AI on healthcare.  

Malinda Wu, M.D., M.Sc. is an assistant professor of pediatrics whose research interests include endocrine abnormalities in cystic fibrosis (CF) and metabolic bone disease (primary bone disease such as osteogenesis imperfecta and secondary bone disease including CF-related bone disease and glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis). She has research grant funding from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Johns Hopkins University.

Collaborating with Dr. Scott Blackman, Dr. Wu’s current diabetes research focuses on leveraging the resources of the Johns Hopkins Cystic Fibrosis Precision Medicine Center of Excellence (CF PMCoE) to use real-time clinical data and genetic data to predict a person with CF’s imminent risk of developing CF-related diabetes. This research is funded by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics Innovation Award.