UNMC researcher Jennifer Larsen, M.D., answers questions about her work, life and interests.
NOTE: This profile is part of a series highlighting the 23 researchers who will be honored at a Tuesday ceremony for UNMC’s 2009 Scientist Laureate, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator award recipients.
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Jennifer Larsen, M.D. |
- Name: Jennifer Larsen, M.D.
- Title: Associate vice chancellor for clinical research and professor of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism in the department of internal medicine
- Joined UNMC: 1987
- Hometown: Ames, Iowa
Describe your research in laymen’s terms.
I am focused on preventing diabetes and its complications in high risk populations with a particular focus on preventing vascular disease after organ transplantation.
How does your research contribute to science and/or health care?
The work I have done with the help of many students, residents, fellows and other collaborators, has shown that diabetic vascular disease is reversible after pancreas transplantation. I have worked with multiple American Indian tribes to develop programs of research and have found additional contributing factors to diabetes risk in this high risk population. Finally, I have been evaluating the role of several non-traditional risk factors in the heart disease that occurs after kidney and pancreas transplant that could lead to new clinical trials.
Beyond grant funding, how do you measure success?
- The success of the trainees and faculty I have mentored.
- Making improvements in UNMC’s clinical research education, infrastructure and processes that will make it easier for our faculty to be successful in their research.
- Hearing that what I taught former students has had an impact on their present careers.
List three things few people know about you.
- Many people still aren’t aware that I am married to Joe Sisson, M.D.
- In another life, I was a running back on the winning Iowa State all-female intramural football team.
- While I held a variety of jobs when I was younger (jewelry repair, thesis typist, civil engineering research assistant, recreation coordinator, youth music director, biology tutor for the football team, to name a few), one job I applied for and didn’t get was to work at McDonald’s.