Dr Jennifer Snaith

Dr Jennifer Snaith is an endocrinologist and Research Fellow based at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Her career mission is to improve the lives of people living with type 1 diabetes through clinical service, advocacy and innovative research.

She is a Staff Specialist Endocrinologist at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, and in 2021 established the Diabetes in Youth (DIY) service with her team (Lucia Marhava, Cheryl Lum and Devlin Higgins). Her research activities are clinically based and relate to type 1 diabetes, insulin resistance, adjunctive therapies and cardiometabolic risk.

Professor Jerry Greenfield and Dr Snaith established the Garvan Institute’s ‘Australian Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Adjuncts Group’ (AUS-TAG) in 2023. The AUS-TAG mission is to prolong the life of Australians living with type 1 diabetes by preventing cardiovascular disease through novel repurposing of cardioprotective medications. AUS-TAG specialises in conducting clinical trials in type 1 diabetes. These studies include detailed mechanistic studies examining the phenotype of metabolic health in type 1 diabetes, and the physiological impacts of adjunctive therapies on cardiometabolic health in type 1 diabetes.

During her PhD candidature, under primary supervisor Professor Greenfield, Dr Snaith conducted the INTIMET study (INsulin resistance in type 1 diabetes managed with METformin) and was a recipient of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Post Graduate Scholarship, and Diabetes Australia top up scholarship. The INTIMET study was a placebo-controlled randomised controlled clinical examining the impact of metformin on hepatic and muscle insulin resistance, assessed using hyperinsulinaemic-euglycaemic clamps.

The RESET1 study (Reducing Cardiometabolic Risk with Semaglutide in Type 1 Diabetes) is the second clinical trial from the AUS-TAG group. Dr Snaith was awarded the Diabetes Australia Coghlan Award for Emerging Researchers, and the Rebecca Davies Fellowship from JDRF Australia to conduct this randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial to examine the effect of semaglutide on cardiovascular risk in adults with type 1 diabetes.