Fil-Am scholar to get top award at world’s largest diabetes meeting

Maria Rosario Araneta

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia – Filipino American Maria Rosario Araneta, PhD, will receive the Vivian Fonseca Scholar Award from the American Diabetes Association at its 74th Scientific Sessions® on June 13-17, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Araneta is the principal investigator of the University of California-San Diego Filipino Health Study, the largest and oldest clinical study of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis among Filipinos in the United States.

She is a co-investigator of the Rancho Bernardo Study where she leads ethnic disparities research in myriad health outcomes among Caucasians, African-Americans and Filipinos, and a study of regional fat distribution, adipocytokines and coronary artery calcium in this multi-ethnic cohort.  In addition, Araneta serves as the UCSD principal investigator of the Practicing Restorative Yoga vs. Stretching for the Metabolic Syndrome (PRYSMS) Study.

The award, given in memory of Mr. P. Nagendran and funded by a grant from Suku Nagendran, MD, and Anne Nagendran, promotes and recognizes diabetes research focused on South Asian or Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations and/or research by a scientist from South Asia or the AANHPI population.

The researcher can be located anywhere in the world and can belong to any ethnic group. It recognizes the contributions of Vivian Fonseca, MD, the Association’s 2012 president, Medicine & Science, who in his years of volunteer service to the organization has been a mentor and role model to many researchers and clinicians.

Araneta is associate professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Division of Epidemiology, at the University of California San Diego. She received her BA in biology from UCSD, followed by both a MPH and PhD in epidemiology from Yale University.

The Vivian Fonseca Scholar Award will be presented to Araneta on Saturday, June 14 at 8:00 a.m. at the Oral Session, “Hot Issues in the Epidemiology of Obesity and Diabetes.”  After receiving the award, Araneta will present her abstract, “Optimum BMI Cut Points to Screen Asian Americans for Type 2 Diabetes —The UCSD Filipino Health Study and the North Kohala Study.”

More than 14,000 top scientists, physicians and other health care professionals from around the world will share the latest cutting-edge research and learn the most up-to-date information on prevention, treatment and care, at Scientific Sessions.  
- See more at: https://www.diabetes.org/newsroom/press-releases/2014/maria-rosario-araneta-receives-award.html#sthash.tYIBbnM3.dpuf