Professor in the Departments of Surgery and of Cell Physiology and Metabolism, and at the Diabetes Centre of the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, Charna Dibner receives the 2026 Prize of the Foundation for Diabetes Research for the TIMED project, which investigates the mechanistic links between mRNA stability and circadian rhythms in pancreatic islets from mice and humans in type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is strongly influenced by internal circadian clocks, which coordinate metabolism and hormone release according to the time of day. Disruption of this synchronisation system — increasingly common in modern lifestyles — impairs blood glucose control and raises the risk of diabetes.

Charna Dibner's work explores an underexamined dimension of type 2 diabetes: the connection between circadian rhythms and mRNA degradation in pancreatic islets. By disrupting a cellular quality-control mechanism specifically in insulin-producing cells, her team has observed significant pancreatic dysfunction and impaired glucose regulation — in mice, but also in human islets from donors with and without diabetes. A better understanding of how biological time and molecular quality interact could open new avenues for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Holding a PhD in medical sciences, Charna Dibner is a specialist in circadian rhythms. Her research, supported in particular by the SNSF and several international foundations, focuses on the role of biological clocks in metabolic diseases — including diabetes and obesity.