Associate Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Jake Kushner is a McNair Medical Institute Scholar and an Associate Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine. For 6 years he served as Chief of Pediatric Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. His overarching career goal is to help children, adolescents, and young adults with type 1 diabetes and other endocrine disorders to live long, healthy lives. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Kushner earned his medical doctorate from Albany Medical College followed by pediatrics residency at Brown, pediatric endocrinology fellowship at Children’s Hospital Boston, and a 5-year research fellowship at the Joslin Diabetes Center (both of Harvard Medical School). Prior to arriving at the Baylor College of Medicine Dr. Kushner was at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The overall goal of his basic science research program is to enable regeneration of the insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells as novel therapies for diabetes patients. Dr. Kushner has received numerous national honors, including a Basil O’Connor award from the March of Dimes and elected membership to the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He has also served as president of the Society for Pediatric Research. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and other sources. Dr. Kushner serves as an advisor to Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Virta Health Inc., and the T1D Exchange. He is the current chair of DDK-B, an NIH study section that reviews training applications in diabetes research. Dr. Kushner’s clinical interests center around the care of children, adolescents, and young adults with type 1 diabetes.