Dr. Raghu Mirmira received his bachelor's, MD, and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago. His interest in diabetes began in his PhD years, during which time he studied how insulin binds to cells to effect its actions. After completion of his MD/PhD degrees, Dr. Mirmira subsequently completed his residency in Medicine and subspecialty training in Diabetes and Endocrinology at the University of California at San Francisco. Throughout his career, he has focused on the intricate biology of the islet ß cell, the only cell that produces insulin. His insights led to the establishment that chromatin structure surrounding ß cell genes is modulated during the course of development to allow cells of the pancreas to differentiate into beta cells. More recently, his work has focused on the intrinsic responses of the ß cells to inflammatory stressors as seen in various forms of diabetes. He has received donor support and multiple grants for his research, including the Howard Hughes Physician Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Thomas R. Lee Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association, NIH awards, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation awards. His research successes were acknowledged nationally when he was recognized as among the nation's top physician scientists by the American Society for Clinical Investigation in April 2010. Dr. Mirmira is currently the Eli Lilly & Co. Professor in Pediatric Diabetes and Director of the Pediatric Diabetes Research and the Medical Scientist Training Programs at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.