Mark Atkinson (scientist)

Mark Atkinson (born March 27, 1961) is a medical researcher best known for his contributions to research seeking to predict, prevent, and cure type 1 diabetes. He is the author of over 500 publications and is one of the world's most cited diabetes researchers.
Atkinson currently conducts research at the University of Florida College of Medicine, where he is Director for the Diabetes Institute at UF Health. He also is the Executive Director of the Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD) program.
Atkinson has also been widely cited for his humanitarian contributions, particularly his efforts to improve diabetes care, management, and access to medications and supplies in developing nations.
Background and education.
Mark Atkinson was born and raised in southeastern Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan – Dearborn where he received a bachelor of Science in microbiology in 1983. Atkinson next received a Ph.D. from the Department of Pathology at the University of Florida in 1987.
While at the University of Florida, Atkinson studied under diabetes researcher Dr. Noel Maclaren, who became his mentor and fostered Atkinson's interest in type 1 diabetes research. His work with Maclaren led Atkinson to develop his three goals of determining what causes type 1 diabetes, identifying a means to predict T1D, and developing a way to prevent and cure the disease.
Academic career.
Atkinson has been teaching and conducting research in the Departments of Pathology and Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine since 1988. He is currently the American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar for Diabetes Research and the Jeffrey Keene Family Professor at the University of Florida, as well as the Director for the Diabetes Institute at that institution.
Type 1 diabetes research.
Atkinson's research activities have a broad scope, but most fall under the umbrella of preventing and curing type 1 diabetes. Specific areas of focus include disease prediction, the role of environment in the initiation of type 1 diabetes, stem cells and beta cell regeneration, pancreatic pathology, clinical trials seeking to prevent or reverse type 1 diabetes, the identification of markers of immunological tolerance, and devising ways to instill proper immunoregulation. Atkinson has been the recipient of funding awards from entities such as the National Institutes of Health, JDRF, the American Diabetes Association, and the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Research approaches.
Atkinson has conducted numerous studies that take different approaches to predicting, preventing, and curing type 1 diabetes. His earliest efforts focused on the use of autoantibodies, both anti-insulin and anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), for that purpose. He was also amongst the first to describe cellular immune responses against GAD in both humans and the NOD mouse model of type 1 diabetes. He has extensively utilized NOD mice as a means to identify agents that could be translated to studies seeking to prevent or reverse type 1 diabetes but at the same time, has stated that such efforts need be approached with caution. His publication in the journal Nature Medicine noting the nearly 200 ways to prevent diabetes in that animal model elicited mixed responses from the research community.
Atkinson was one of the first to propose “combination therapies” to prevent or reverse the disease, as well as the repurposing of existing treatments and agents already approved for other diseases and conditions. Atkinson has led or contributed to clinical trials utilizing several types of interventions to stop the progression of or reverse type 1 diabetes, including prophylactic insulin, GAD, cord blood, cord blood plus Omega-3 FA, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF), and anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) plus GCSF.
Atkinson is currently leading an NIH funded clinical research trial aiming to assess immune function during different stages of type 1 diabetes. The goal is to learn more about the genetics and immune function of blood cells, diet, and viruses and how they relate to the progression of T1D.
Atkinson is also active in studies assessing the human intestinal microbiome, pancreatic pathology, human pancreatic weight and beta cell development, as well as improving methods of data management.
nPOD.
Atkinson is the Executive Director for the Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD) program, the world's largest "open access" biobank of human tissues from persons with or at varying levels of risk for type 1 diabetes. nPOD is funded by JDRF and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Through nPOD, Atkinson and other collaborators support research utilizing transplant-grade human tissues obtained from organ donors, including pancreas, spleen, whole blood, serum, lymph nodes, pancreatic lymph nodes, thymus, skin and bone marrow. The goal is to better understand the causes of type 1 diabetes and identify potential approaches to curing the disease. Atkinson has directed nPOD since its founding in 2007, it has and continued to support over 250 different investigators in some 200 research projects in 20 countries worldwide.
Research collaborations.
In addition to nPOD, Atkinson participates in a number of other collaborative research efforts. He is one of ten members of the Brehm Coalition for Type 1 Diabetes Research, and one of four initial members of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust's Type 1 Diabetes Research Initiative. Atkinson also collaborates on a number of research initiatives with investigators around the globe as well as with his colleagues at the University of Florida's Diabetes Institute.
Atkinson also serves as Director of the Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) at the University of Florida. HuBMAP's mission is to develop a 3-D map of the human body at a single-cell level.
Leadership and influence in the field.
Atkinson is the author of over 425 peer-reviewed publications as well as several book chapters. Expertscape ranks Atkinson as one of the ten most published diabetes researchers in the world, and with an all time h-index of 91, he is one of the most highly cited diabetes researchers in the world.
Atkinson provides leadership to numerous entities that focus on research and service to the type 1 diabetes community, and currently provides administrative or advisory service to JDRF, the American Diabetes Association, Diapedia, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Immunology of Diabetes Society. He is a charter member of the NIH's Immune Tolerance Network Scientific Advisory Board, former Chair of the NIH's Human Islet Research Network (HIRN), and a steering committee member of NIH TrialNet.
Atkinson also formerly served as an Associate Editor for the journal "Diabetes". He now serves as ad hoc Editor-in-Chief for that journal as well as "Diabetes Care".
Commercial and industry work.
Along with his colleagues at the University of Florida Diabetes Institute, Atkinson is pursuing a vaccine strategy for preventing type 1 diabetes. The approach seeks to eliminate the autoimmune response directed at insulin that is present in patients with the disease by generating antigen-specific Tregs (regulatory T cells) in response to the antigens of interest rather than try to eliminate the autoreactive destructive cells. To further this line of research, Atkinson and other investigators started a spin-off company called OneVax, LLC. OneVax seeks to develop and commercialize a novel vaccine formula to prevent and/or reverse type 1 diabetes, incorporating biomaterials and polymers for applications including multicomponent and time-release drug delivery. Atkinson serves as CEO of OneVax.
Humanitarian interests.
Atkinson has joined with other leaders calling for a means to provide insulin to 100 percent of the world's population who need it by 2022, the centennial anniversary of insulin availability. Atkinson also serves as an Advisory Board Member to the Life for a Child program.
Atkinson has served with the Haitian Foundation for Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases (Fondation Haitienne de Diabete et de Maladies Cardio-Vasculaires), overseen by Nancy Larco. Atkinson has traveled to Haiti to provide medical, dental, and educational assistance, including after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Atkinson and his wife co-founded a non-profit organization, Hope on the Move, for humanitarian causes, primarily related to providing medical and dental care to developing nations. Atkinson serves as secretary, treasurer and director of Hope on the Move.
Atkinson is the president of Insulin for Life-USA, a non-profit organization that collects insulin, test strips, and other diabetes management supplies and distributes them to needy individuals in developing nations as well as in the United States following natural disasters.