02/19/2026
A nationally recognized leader in Type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, Emily K. Sims, MD, a physician-scientist at Riley Children’s Health, has been on the ground floor of some of the most notable advancements in T1D treatment and prevention in the past 15 years.
“While we’ve come a long way in how we administer insulin and monitor blood sugar in patients with Type 1 diabetes, our current focus, and what I study specifically, is how we can treat the disease by targeting its underlying cause,” explained Dr. Sims, a recently elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. “If we can find a regimen that could be given before symptoms develop—that would help preserve insulin-producing cells, help patients make more of their own insulin and delay the need for insulin replacement—the disease will be easier to manage and patients could have better long-term outcomes.”
Dr. Sims and her colleagues in the Indiana University School of Medicine Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases were one of the first in the Midwest to administer teplizumab, the first FDA-approved treatment for type 1 diabetes delay. An active clinical trial site for therapies designed to modify the course of Type 1 diabetes, Riley Children’s is one of just 18 centers in the world participating in TrialNet, a major research network focused on T1D prevention.
A diabetes investigator with the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Dr. Sims studies
pathophysiologic contributors to beta cell dysfunction in Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, with a particular interest in extracellular vesicles changes in their cargo occurring during the development of the disease. Her team is working to define noninvasive biomarkers of beta cell health to identify individuals at risk for diabetes development so they may be targeted for earlier interventions. Her research is also designed to provide better understanding of the beta cell’s role in diabetes risk and development.
“Screening everyone, in an effort to identify and intervene in the disease before it causes any symptoms and before people require insulin, is really the future of type 1 diabetes care,” said Dr. Sims.
While T1D screening programs for the general population are not widely available, Riley Children’s and IU School of Medicine are leading Finding Immune Nascent Diabetes (FIND-T1D) to help advance innovative screening strategies for the early detection of T1D. The goal of the project, which leverages patient health and genetic data from the Indiana Biobank, is to improve diagnosis rates and treatment outcomes for both children and adults in Indiana at high risk for developing diabetes. A $1.1 million grant funded the program’s pilot, and the team is negotiating a contract with a pharmaceutical company to secure an additional $3 million to fund prospective screening through the biobank.
“It’s an exciting effort aimed at identifying people who don’t have a family history of diabetes, but who might be at increased risk based on their genetics, and offering them the opportunity to get screened,” said Dr. Sims. “Most people who present with T1D don’t have a family history, so if our goal is to identify more cases early, then we need to screen more people.”
In addition to the screening study, Dr. Sims leads the Targeting Type 1 Diabetes via Polymines (TADPOL) study, a multi-center Phase II clinical trial, which is coordinated at Riley and IU School of Medicine. TADPOL tests difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), a disease-modifying therapy that may reduce stress in the cells that make insulin and preserve the body’s own insulin production.
“TADPOL is novel because it’s testing a drug that potentially makes the beta cell healthier versus targeting the immune system,” explained Dr. Sims, who published with Riley colleague Linda DiMeglio, MD, MPH, the results of a pilot study highlighting DFMO’s role in preserving beta cell function in T1D. “A much larger study with seven participating centers, TADPOL will give us a definitive answer about whether the drug actually helps make beta cells healthier and preserve insulin secretion compared to placebo in people with new-onset disease.”
Learn more
Check out the Diabetes & Endocrinology section of the latest Riley Children’s Health annual report for more information about treatment, programs, novel procedures and research.
