William Hagopian is the Scientific Director at the Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute in Seattle. He completed medical and research doctorates at the Univ of Chicago and Internal Medicine Residency and Endocrinology Fellowship at the University of Washington, where he remains Clinical Professor of Medicine treating inpatients and outpatients. He serves as Chair of various scientific and safety committees and boards, as well as grant review committees at the National Institutes of Health. He has published 75 manuscripts and reviews. Dr. Hagopian's research focuses on strategies in immunology and molecular biology for predicting and preventing type 1 diabetes before clinical disease onset. These studies include screening over 140,000 Washington State newborns to a) determine what environmental factors trigger the disease in those with genetic susceptibility and b) develop and implement cost-effective strategies for population-based pediatric screening for preclinical diabetes prediction. Finally, Dr. Hagopian pursues several collaborative clinical trials to find low-toxicity immune therapies to interrupt the inappropriate autoimmune response that attacks and kills the insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells. In addition to their potential to prevent diabetes before the clinical onset, these studies may help newly diagnosed patients to preserve the remaining insulin producing cells, enabling better management of blood sugar.