Josephine Forbes is an Australian scientist, specialising in the study of glycation and diabetes.
Education
Professor Josephine Forbes was awarded her Doctor of Philosophy in Nephrology in 1999 from the University of Melbourne, for research carried out at the Royal Children"s Hospital. She is currently an National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Fellow and has held research grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDRF) and the National Institutes of Health (United States of America).
Career
She has been studying diabetes since the year 1999 and has worked at Royal Children"s Hospital, the University of Melbourne and Baker Integrated Dietetic Internship Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne Australia. Since 2012 she has led the Glycation and Diabetes team at the Mater Institute, University of Queensland which is part of Australia"s first Translational Institute. Josephine and her team focus on how advanced glycation contributes to the pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications such as kidney disease.
Professor Forbes currently leads a team of post-doctoral researchers and supervises numerous students, in addition to being a Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland and a Principal Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Melbourne.
Josephine is a scientist at heart, who likes to be close to discovery and innovation as she believes this is to be the key to the future health discoveries. Professor Forbes" research focuses on the process of advanced glycation and its contribution to diabetes and its complications, in particular kidney disease.
Her recent work includes research into how advanced glycation of food by modern processing techniques and storage may be contributing to our diabetes epidemic. Her research aims to find medicines which reduce the accumulation of products of advanced glycation, which in turn will impact the incidence of diabetes and kidney disease.
Her research also aims to provide information to food regulatory authorities and health care providers about advanced glycation in food and the implications of ingesting this in excess.
So far this research has identified a class of medicines which appears to be effective for the treatment of kidney disease in diabetes, and also affects how our bodies process sugar. In the food area, she has conducted a clinical trial in overweight individuals examining the effects of advanced glycation products in food on their sugar handling and kidney function. Her team is also part of a large clinical trial tracking the consumption of advanced glycation products by mothers and their babies to see if there is an association with this and the development of Type 1 diabetes in later life.
Her work to date has resulted in more than 100 publications with more than 4500 citations.
JDRF Post Doctoral Fellowship, 2002-2004 JDRF Career Development Award, 2005-2009 National Health and Medical Research Council, Rural Delivery Wright Career Development Award, 2005-2009 National Health and Medical Research Council, Career Development Award level 2, 2010 National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Fellowship, 2011-2015.
Membership
JDRF Post Doctoral Fellowship, 2002-2004
JDRF Career Development Award, 2005-2009
National Health and Medical Research Council, Rural Delivery Wright Career Development Award, 2005-2009
National Health and Medical Research Council, Career Development Award level 2, 2010
National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Fellowship, 2011-2015.