Sarcopenia and Diabetes Care: Muscle Health and Targeted Nutrition

Osama Hamdy, MD, PHD, FACE

Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA

Osama Hamdy, MD, PhD is a world expert and recognized thought leader in area obesity and nutrition in diabetes. Dr. Hamdy is a senior endocrinologist and Medical Director of the Joslin Obesity Clinical Program and Director of the International Medical Affairs of Joslin Diabetes Center. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Plus, his 38 years of extensive clinical experience, he is very active in nutrition and obesity clinical research. His lab led to many innovations and discoveries that changed how we currently mange obesity in patients with either type 2 or type 1 diabetes and incorporated in National and International Guidelines.

Dr. Hamdy research led to the first landmark discovery that 7% weight loss in obese patients with and without diabetes significantly improve vascular endothelial function, insulin sensitivity and markers of inflammation. This improvement may eventually prevent progression to coronary artery disease. Dr. Hamdy was a co-investigator in two major US studies: the "Diabetes Prevention Program" and "the Look AHEAD Study." In 2005, Dr. Hamdy founded the "Weight Achievement and Intensive Treatment (Why WAIT) program, which is currently implemented nationally and internationally with great success. His program helps patients with diabetes to be less dependent on diabetes medications. In 2022, Dr. Hamdy and team created the world's first Diabetes Remission Outcome Protocol (DROP) that combines advanced nutrition techniques with technology. Dr. Hamdy co-chaired the task force that developed the global transcultural Diabetes Nutrition Algorithm (tDNA).

Dr. Hamdy joined Joslin Diabetes Center in 1998, where he founded the obesity clinical program and restructured the inpatient diabetes program. Dr. Hamdy won the 2015 Michaela Madan Award of the American Diabetes Association for his research on long-term diabetes weight management. He was given the Compassionate Caregiver Award of the Kenneth Schwartz Center. Dr. Hamdy has more than 150 peer-reviewed original articles, reviews, and book chapters. He is also the author of the Harvard Health Publication "The Diabetes Breakthrough" reversing diabetes through weight management. He is on the editorial review board of many medical journals including Lancet, JAMA, British Medical Journal, Diabetes Care and 2 times section editor of Nutrients and Current Diabetes Report and also associate editor of Frontiers in Nutrition.

Francesco Giorgino, MD, PhD

Professor of Endocrinology 
Head, Section of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Andrology & Metabolic Diseases                                                Chief, Division of Endocrinology
University Hospital Policlinico Consorziale
Bari, Italy

Francesco Giorgino is Professor of Endocrinology and Chairman of the Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Ionian Area at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy. He is also Chief of the Division of Endocrinology at the University Hospital Policlinico Consorziale in Bari. Professor Giorgino received his MD from the University of Bari Aldo Moro and his PhD from the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. After completing clinical training in endocrinology at the University of Catania, Italy, he worked at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA, as a postdoctoral research fellow and visiting scientist (1990-1994).

Professor Giorgino has received scientific awards from various institutions, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) Fellowship (New York, NY, USA), the Mary K. Iacocca Foundation Fellowship (Boston, MA, USA), the Glaxo-Wellcome Award from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), the Aldo Pinchera and Cassano Awards from the Italian Society of Endocrinology, and the Alcmeone Award from the Italian Society of Diabetology. He has been the Italian Delegate in European Commission Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) actions for diabetes, has been President of the Italian Society of Endocrinology (2019-2021), and is currently Senior Vice-President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

He is or has been a member of the Editorial Boards for PLoS ONE, Journal of Endocrinology, Endocrinology, Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, Adipocyte, Acta Diabetologica, Cardiorenal Medicine, and Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews. He has published more than 300 original and review articles and has been an invited speaker at many national and international meetings. His research interests include the mechanisms of insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes and the effects of diabetes drugs on pancreatic islets and the cardiovascular system. He has an H-index of 77 and 24.000 citations (Google Scholar).

Carla Prado, PhD, RD

Distinguished University Professor
Research Chair, Integrative Nutrition, Body Composition & Energy Metabolism
Director of the Human Nutrition Research Unit
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Dr Carla Prado is a professor at the University of Alberta in Canada and a Campus Alberta Innovate Program (CAIP) chair in Nutrition, Food and Health. She is also the director of the Human Nutrition Research Unit. Dr Prado received her PhD in human nutrition and metabolism from the University of Alberta, Canada, and is a registered dietitian in both Canada and Brazil. Dr Prado is an expert in assessing nutritional status through the precise measurement of body composition and energy metabolism. The focus of her current research program is to develop targeted nutrition interventions for the prevention and treatment of low muscle mass in patients with diverse conditions. She is currently the principal investigator for four randomized controlled trials investigating the impact of nutrition intervention on body composition and health. She is currently a member of the GLIM Body Composition Working Group, and the Sarcopenic Obesity Consensus Group (ESPEN/EASO). She is an Associate Editor of Clinical Nutrition and the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.