Dr. Diane Finegood is an established research practitioner whose interdisciplinary work merged math and biology to reveal a key role for the immune system in diabetes. Her work doesn’t just end at the lab bench. She leads research endeavours ranging from basic research to understanding patient health and translating scientific concepts to a wider audience. She demonstrates and advocates for the importance of scientific discovery, while inspiring her team and colleagues.

Born in the United States, Dr. Finegood obtained her PhD in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Southern California (1984) before coming to Canada where she joined Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 2000.

At SFU she directed the Diabetes Research Lab where she investigated how the immune system acts on beta cells in diabetes. Beta cells found in the pancreas make insulin for regulating blood sugar levels. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system treats the body’s own beta cells like a threat and attacks them in an effort to avoid danger – this is called an autoimmune response. In type 2 diabetes, the immune system is associated with obesity and reacts to high blood glucose levels.

In her lab, Finegood used mathematical modeling and cell detection methods to discover that changes in beta cells in rats cause cell death, triggering the immune system to kill more of these cells, cascading the effect and disrupting insulin production. This profound discovery laid the groundwork for future researchers to investigate the immune system and its complexities in diabetes.

For her contributions to diabetes research, Dr. Finegood was awarded the B.C. Sugar Achievement Award (2001) and was recognized with the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award (2002). Several years later, she also received the Frederick G. Banting Award (2008) for her contributions to obesity and diabetes research.

Dr. Finegood has remained at SFU, and is currently Professor and Fellow in the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. She also teaches the Semester in Dialogue program on health and wellness where students are encouraged to reflect on what they’re doing and why it matters.

Finegood identifies as a “systems thinker”, taking on a holistic approach to analysis that “looks at the bigger picture” to understand how the various parts of a (e.g. healthcare) system interrelate and change over time. This is evident in her interdisciplinary work throughout her career. She joins fellow thinkers at the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR), a multidisciplinary association dedicated to improving health and health care through research collaboration, research advocacy in policy-making, and education and training.

Dr. Finegood served as the Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes from 2000 to 2008. Since 2018, she has been the Executive Director of the Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance.

— Written by Michelle Ku