The Catalan Diabetes Association (ACD) has awarded the 2025 Basic Diabetes Research Grant to Dr. Julia Hernández Baixauli, a Sara Borrell postdoctoral researcher in the Metabolism and Obesity Laboratory of the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Group at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), for the project entitled “Impact of Time-Restricted Eating on Adipose Tissue Inflammation and Glucose Homeostasis: Molecular Mechanisms.”

The grant was awarded during the XVI ACD Conference, held on Friday, May 29, at the Great Hall of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Barcelona–Hospital Clínic, during the Association’s 2025 grants and fellowships award ceremony. The grant was presented by ACD Vice-President M. Belén Benito Badorrey and President José Manuel Fernández-Real.

Time-Restricted Eating and the Control of Inflammation and Glucose

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disease characterized by insulin resistance, which is closely associated with obesity and chronic low-grade inflammation of white adipose tissue. This process contributes to the disruption of glucose homeostasis and accelerates the progression of insulin resistance, thereby increasing the risk of metabolic complications and reducing patients’ quality of life.

Dietary interventions constitute a key strategy for improving health. This project will investigate how time-restricted eating, an innovative nutritional strategy based on limiting the daily eating window, may improve obesity-associated inflammation and glucose control in individuals with insulin resistance and T2DM.

The research will focus particularly on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying these beneficial effects on adipose tissue, with the aim of identifying new therapeutic targets and contributing to the development of future nutritional strategies to improve metabolic health and patients’ quality of life.