EASD 2025 - BR1DGE Symposium
Category: Congress
Join leading experts at this 90-minute BR1DGE symposium to explore how early screening and timely intervention could transform outcomes and redefine the future of T1D care.
Sabine Hofer
Dr. Sabine E. Hofer is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. She serves as Deputy Director of the Department of Pediatrics 1 since 2018, where she also works as a consultant in pediatric endocrinology and diabetes. Her team is very experienced in technical diabetes treatment in youth, and the diabetes unit is a full member of INNODIA, a European network focused on preventing and curing Type 1 Diabetes.
In her early career, Dr. Hofer completed research fellowships at the Childrens´ Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, Australia and in Lille, France. Her research activities include work in diabetes registries with international comparisons between different diabetes registries and clinical research networks, hybrid-closed Loop Studies in very young children, as well as other topics like smoking behavior, neonatal diabetes, DKA incidence and celiac disease. To improve diabetes management in schools, Dr. Hofer developed and established a successful nationwide online diabetes training for teachers in Austria.
Her editorial experience includes serving as Deputy Editor of Pediatric Diabetes for several years as well as being a long-standing Editorial Board Member of various other diabetes related Journals. In 2018, she was one of the five editors of the full set of ISPAD Clinical Practice Consensus Guidelines 2018.
Dr. Hofer has held numerous leadership roles in national and international diabetes and pediatric societies, and is currently serving as Treasurer of the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD).
Anastacia Albanese O'Neill
Anastasia Albanese-O’Neill, Ph.D., APRN, CDCES, serves as vice president, medical affairs, at Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) where her team focuses on accelerating clinical adoption of emerging therapies in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and raising awareness about the importance of early detection and clinical trial participation. Prior to joining Breakthrough T1D, Albanese-O’Neill was an assistant professor of pediatrics and nursing at the University of Florida, where she maintained an active research portfolio and clinical practice. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Diabetes Care, The Lancet, Pediatric Diabetes, and Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.
Albanese-O’Neill has been a passionate diabetes advocate since her daughter was diagnosed with T1D in 2002, and has provided testimony at congressional hearings, the White House, and in the Florida legislature. She is a co-author on state, national, and international position statements on diabetes in the school setting aimed at reducing discrimination and improving care for students with diabetes. She was recognized as Diabetes Care and Education Specialist of the Year by ADCES in 2023
.jpg/jcr:content/Evans-Molina%20Carmela%20-%20HIGH%20RES%2019%20c%20(2).jpg)
Carmella Evans-Molina
Dr. Carmella Evans-Molina is the Eli Lilly Professor of Pediatric Diabetes at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, IN, where she serves as Director of the IU Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases and Program Leader for the Diabetes Research Group in the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research. She is a Staff Physician at the Roudebush Veteran's Affairs (VA) Medical Center.
Her research is focused on understanding the molecular and signaling pathways operating within pancreatic β cells that drive the transition from a compensated state of euglycemia to a decompensated state of hyperglycemia in both type 1 (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D).
Dr. Evans-Molina is a Co-Executive Director of the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD), Co-PI of the NIH-funded Integrated Islet Distribution Program, and is an Associate Editor for Diabetes.
Amir Tirosh
Dr. Tirosh receiverd his MD (Summa Cum Laude) and PhD in Biochemistry from Ben-Gurion University in Israel. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Sheba Medical Center in Israel and fellowship in Endocrinology and Diabetes at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
Dr. Tirosh completed a post-doctoral training at the Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases at Harvard School of Public Health under the supervision of Dr. Gokhan Hotamisligil.
In 2018, Dr. Tirosh was appointed Director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Sheba Medical Center, the largest hospital in Israel, ranked by Newsweek as one of the top 10 hospitals in the world. His main research activities include the pathophysiology of type 2 and type 1 diabetes and more recently, the effects of the obese adipose tissue on cancer cell growth and development. He is also extensively involved in clinical studies and translational projects in type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Tirosh is a member of the Israeli National Council for Diabetes and chair the sub-committee for type 1 diabetes. Dr. Tirosh received competitive grants from the National Institution of Health, the American Diabetes Association, the Israeli Science Foundation and the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals. H index=40.
Colin Dayan
Professor Colin Dayan trained in medicine at University College, Oxford, and Guy’s and Charing Cross Hospitals in London, UK before obtaining a PhD in the immunology of Graves’ Disease in the Laboratory of Marc Feldmann.
He then spent a year as an endocrine fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, USA before completing his specialist training in diabetes and endocrinology as a Lecturer in Bristol. In 2010, he was appointed to the Chair of Clinical Diabetes and Metabolism and Head of Section at Cardiff University School of Medicine and in 2020 as part-time Senior Clinical Researcher in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford.
Professor Dayan has a long-established interest in translational research in the immunopathology of type 1 diabetes promoting progress to “insulin-free T1D”. He has published first-in-man clinical studies on the development of peptide immunotherapy and the use of nanoparticles in T1D as well as pioneering the use of lymph node and injection site sampling to monitor the response to therapy. Since 2015 he has been a leading member of the UKT1D-Research Consortium which has hosted more than 15 clinical trials in early T1D over 30 sites.
A New Dawn in T1D: How Early Screening and Intervention Could Light the Way to Improved Clinical Outcomes
AGENDA
- 10:00–10:10 - Welcome (Sabine Hofer – Chair)
- 10:10-10:30 - The Reality of Early Identification: The New Imperative in T1D Management (Anastacia Albanese-O'Neill)
- 10:30–10:55 - Missed Signals – When T1D Goes Unrecognized (Carmella Evans-Molina & Amir Tirosh)
- 10:55–11:15 - Beyond Diagnosis: Evolving Therapeutic Strategies in T1D (Colin Dayan)
- 11:15-11:25 - Q&A (All Faculty)
- 11:25–11:30 - Summary (Sabine Hofer – Chair)
MEETING OBJECTIVES
- Explore practical considerations arising from early detection of T1D in children, and improved diagnostic options in adults
- Discuss emerging therapeutic strategies and their implications for T1D management
SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW
The first symposium session will explore what it takes to implement general-population screening — from clinical integration to system-level readiness — drawing on real-world experiences from existing initiatives
The second session will focus on the underrecognized burden of adult-onset T1D, examining diagnostic pitfalls and opportunities to support earlier, more accurate identification across care settings.
The last session will look ahead to innovative therapeutic strategies, including those aiming to intervene earlier in the disease process and preserve beta-cell function.
The symposium will conclude with a panel discussion and audience Q&A, offering a chance to reflect on key insights and future directions.