Mark Atkinson

Mark Atkinson (born March 27, 1961) is an American medical researcher best known for his contributions to research seeking to predict, prevent, and cure type 1 diabetes. He is the author of over 600 publications and one of the world's most cited diabetes researchers.

Atkinson conducts research at the University of Florida College of Medicine, where he is director for the Diabetes Institute at UF Health. He is also the executive director of the Network for Pancreatic Organ donors with Diabetes (nPOD) program.

Atkinson has also been cited for his humanitarian contributions, particularly his efforts to improve diabetes care, management, and access to medications and supplies in developing nations.

Early life 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’s interest in type 1 diabetes started by volunteering at a summer camp for children with the disease. Those efforts led Atkinson to develop his three career goals of determining what causes type 1 diabetes, identifying a means to predict T1D, and developing a way to prevent and cure the disease.

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.

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, and it has continued to support over 320 research projects in over 20 countries worldwide.

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 trying 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 is CEO of OneVax.

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. 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.

For more than 25 years, Atkinson led an NIH-funded clinical research program 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. Atkinson also collaborates on a number of research initiatives with investigators in the US and abroad as well as with his colleagues at the University of Florida's Diabetes Institute.

Atkinson is director of the Human Biomolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP) at the University of Florida. HuBMAP is working to develop a 3-D map of the human body at a single-cell level.

Honors and awards 2004: Mary Tyler Moore and S. Robert Levine, M.D. Excellence in Clinical Research Award from JDRF 2016: Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award from The University of Michigan-Dearborn 2018: American Diabetes Association Humanitarian Award 2018: American Diabetes Association Albert Renold Award 2018: In December 2018 Expertscape recognized Atkinson as one of the top ten experts in the world for expertise in Diabetes Mellitus Type 1. 2019: Novo Nordisk Jacobæus Award

Philanthropy 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 is an Advisory Board Member to the Life for a Child program. Atkinson is 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.

Selected publications