Diabetes Research

Find a dedicated team of researchers and diabetes experts committed to curing diabetes and ending the diabetes pandemic in the 21st century at OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center in Oklahoma City, a world leader in diabetes research, treatment and prevention.

Comprehensive Diabetes Care & Treatment

When you choose Harold Hamm Diabetes Center for your care and treatment, you benefit from the most comprehensive care available anywhere that also integrates top-flight academic research with outstanding clinical care and disease prevention.

Through facilities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, as well as affiliated sites across the state and in partnerships with Native American communities, you benefit from an innovative range of services at Harold Hamm Diabetes Center, including support groups, healthy eating and cooking classes, lifestyle intervention programs and a summer camp for children and teens living with diabetes.

A New Vision & Relentless Commitment to a Cure

At Harold Hamm Diabetes Center, resources can be deployed in new directions that optimize the search for a cure, which will end the diabetes pandemic. Our vision is to help children, adults and their families live healthier lives without diabetes and its consequences. Read more in a message from Director Jed Friedman, Ph.D.

Read Research at the Root: The Pursuit that Drives Us

Innovation Through the World’s Largest Diabetes Research Prize

The Diabetes Center oversees the world’s top research prize in the diabetes field, the Harold Hamm International Prize. Established in 2012, this award recognizes and promotes lasting achievements in diabetes research focused on progress toward a cure.

Advances in the Laboratory Translate into Improved Care for You

Explore the ways OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center answers the call for progress against the pandemic of diabetes and its complications. Read 2018’s Research at the Rootreport online at ISSUU or download the report (pdf).

Pioneering Biomedical Research in Diabetes & Its Complications

Among the world’s largest institutions of its kind, the Diabetes Center also supports innovations in diabetes care and treatment come directly from advances made in our laboratories.

• Leading the nation in the TODAY Study focused on advancing treatment for children with Type 2 diabetes
• Training the next generation of diabetes researchers through our NIH-funded Institutional Development Award
• Examining Interventions to halt the origins of childhood diabetes, obesity and metabolic diseases in the first 1000 days.
• Three Paths to a Cure

• Serving as custodian of the world’s largest prize for diabetes research
• Providing continuing medical education annually to healthcare professionals in our region

Federal funding for mentoring diabetes researchers, supported by a $10 million COBRE award, is now in its 13th year. All COBRE-supported Junior Investigators have received independent grants, including eight NIH R01 grants, two R21 grants and multiple grants from foundations such as the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. Five Junior Investigators have been promoted to Associate Professor and, so far, three have received tenure. In addition, because of their success in research, two received endowed chair positions. This group of Junior Investigators has published 207 peer-reviewed papers, 135 of which received support from COBRE-funded Cores.

More About Diabetes Center Research

Find out more about research at OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center:

• Research Programs
• Research Members
• Research Facilities
• Research for Healthcare Professionals, including our annual Research Symposium and the Harold Hamm International Prize

History of Harold Hamm Diabetes Center

Early on, the University of Oklahoma became internationally recognized for its work in the field of diabetes, creating a unique foundation for Harold Hamm Diabetes Center to build upon.

As early as the late 1950s, OU researcher Dr. Kelly West began work that led to him become the first person to systematically study the mechanisms, natural history and diagnostic criteria used to identify diabetes. Today, he is internationally regarded as the “father of diabetes epidemiology.” The most prestigious award in diabetes epidemiology, given by the American Diabetes Association, is named in his honor.

In the 1960s, Dr. Paul Kimmelstiel came to OU to carry on his groundbreaking work on diabetes and kidney disease, resulting in the identification of Kimmelstiel-Wilson syndrome, a kidney condition associated with diabetes.

In the 1980s, Dr. James Galvin joined OU and pioneered innovative techniques for educating young children about diabetes and the importance of healthy lifestyles in preventing the disease.

In the 1990s, Dr. Kenneth Copeland came to OU to greatly expand the pediatric diabetes program, which has led the way in research for prenatal and childhood causes of diabetes, as well as establishing treatment guidelines for Type 2 diabetes in children.

In the 2000s, Dr. Timothy Lyons was recruited to significantly increase the focus of OU’s endocrinology programs on adult diabetes research and clinical care.

Beginning in 2019, Dr. Jed Friedman was recruited as the new director of the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center to significantly increase the next phase of basic and translational research in adult and pediatric diabetes programs.

Diabetes Clinical Trials in Oklahoma City & Tulsa

You may qualify to join a clinical trial at OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center in Oklahoma City, whether or not you live with diabetes. Enroll in our Volunteer Registry to receive up-to-date information on clinical trials of potential interest to you, with no obligation to participate.

Adult clinical trials in Oklahoma City – 405-271-3604
Pediatric clinical trials in Oklahoma City – 405-271-3303
Pediatric clinical trials in Tulsa – 918-619-4803