Kristin Clemens

Banting House

My name is Kristin Clemens and I’m a physician scientist at Saint Joseph’s Healthcare, London and Lawson Research Institute and associate Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western. I was really fortunate because of generous donors in the London and area community to receive the Diabetes Canada Chair in diabetes management in 2023 and Diabetes Canada is an organization that supports great research in the community.

The first time that I went was just a couple of years ago actually. And that was at an event to celebrate 100 years of insulin. It was, it was a really amazing experience. It’s almost like walking into a piece of history. I think what stood out for me the most there was of course Banting’s bedroom. Truly like a walk back in time and really neat artifacts and letters and just a beautiful place.

Also the, the dining room, we got to spend a little bit of time there and can imagine some of the conversations that must have happened across the table. I think the, the really neat thing, even the facade. Like it’s, it’s a very humble spot and it kind of reminded me that even though it may feel very small that like big ideas come from small places and can come from everyday people. So I think that that that resonated with me as well.

So our research is really action oriented. So what we want to do is we want to do studies that make diabetes easier on patients, so we’re really focused on interventions or ways to support people with diabetes. We work with, with patients who are living with disease to try to find ways to do better, so improve outcomes.

We’ll be going back again in, in November, for World Diabetes Day and the celebration of Diabetes Canada and its support to researchers over the last 50 years.