Can Dog Teach Man? How Studying Diabetes in Dogs May Help People (and Vice Versa)

Can Dog Teach Man? How Studying Diabetes in Dogs May Help People (and Vice Versa)


Just as people do, pets can also develop diabetes. While the terms corresponding to the major types of diabetes (type 1 and type 2) in people don’t fit perfectly with the disease that pets get, dogs with diabetes usually have a deficiency of insulin (and are most similar to type 1 diabetes in people), and cats usually have insulin resistance (and are most similar to type 2 diabetes in people) with obesity being a risk factor in cats. On this unique show, which will focus on diabetes in dogs and type 1 diabetes in people, Dr. Allison O’Kell, a veterinary internal medicine specialist and clinician scientist studying diabetes in dogs, teams up with Dr. Mark Atkinson, the American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar for Diabetes Research at UF and director of the UF Diabetes Institute, to discuss their collaborative research program aimed at determining why humans and dogs get diabetes and whether new knowledge about dogs might help people and vice-versa.

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