Dr. Hanley received his PhD in Epidemiology in 2000 from the University of Toronto. He subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Centre in San Antonio. From 2002-2005, Dr. Hanley was a Research Scientist at the Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Since 2005, Dr. Hanley has been a faculty member in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, where he teaches, conducts research, and supervises graduate students. His research is supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Dairy Farmers of Canada, and the University of Toronto Banting and Best Diabetes Centre. Dr. Hanley’s research interests include the metabolic and nutritional epidemiology of type 2 diabetes and its underlying physiological traits, including obesity, insulin resistance and pancreatic beta cell dysfunction. His work focuses on longitudinal cohorts of understudied high-risk populations, including Indigenous Canadians, those of African and Hispanic origin, and non-diabetic subjects who are otherwise at very high risk of progression to diabetes, including those with pre-diabetes or the metabolic syndrome. For over 25 years, Dr. Hanley has had the privilege of working closely with Indigenous partners to address the heavy burden of type 2 diabetes in that population using a variety of approaches.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a growing global public health concern, with a disproportionately heavy burden in a number of world regions (e.g. Asia and the Middle East), as well in population groups within developed countries, including marginalized and minority communities. Although the etiology of T2DM is complex, it is clear that diet quality plays an important role in the development and management of the disease. However, the well-known scientific challenges in establishing connections between diet and T2DM are especially pronounced in understudied higher risk groups, and it is therefore critically important that nutrition researchers pay special attention to the proper development and implementation of dietary assessment methods in studies conducted with these groups. In addition to the clear scientific advantages of high-quality evidence linking dietary components and/or patterns to T2DM, these data can be enormously beneficial for clinical application and for the development of culturally-appropriate primary prevention strategies on both the individual and community levels.