about us

Close Concerns provides consulting services on diabetes to a wide range of established and start-up corporate clients, including pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies. Close Concerns also publishes Diabetes Close Up, a monthly newsletter focused on clinical and commercial developments in the field, and produces special reports on products and trends influencing diabetes. We attend 30+ medical conferences and meetings per year globally that focus on diabetes and obesity. Close Concerns also has strong relationships with many of the leading researchers and clinicians in diabetes. The company's expertise reflects the professional experience of its employees as well as a personal understanding of the disease. Several principals and associates, including founder Kelly Close, have type 1 diabetes.

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KELLY L. CLOSE, PRESIDENT

Kelly L. Close is president of Close Concerns, Inc., a healthcare information firm exclusively focused on diabetes and obesity. Close Concerns publishes Closer Look, a real-time news service covering all goings-on in diabetes and obesity, as well as Diabetes Close Up, a monthly industry newsletter. Kelly is also editor-in-chief of diaTribe, a monthly online newsletter focused on new research and products for people with diabetes (diaTribe.us) and is very active in dQ&A, Close Concerns' market research business. Kelly and her colleagues attend over 40 conferences globally focused on diabetes and obesity, cover key medical literature in the field, and write quarterly about 60-plus private and public companies in the area. Kelly's passion for the field comes from her extensive professional work as well as her personal experience as a patient with type 1 diabetes for nearly 25 years. Her analytic expertise come from nearly ten years researching medical technology and pharma as an equity research analyst. Prior to this, Kelly worked at McKinsey & Company with a majority of her work focused in the healthcare practice. She began her career working as an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Kelly is widely viewed as an expert on the businesses of diabetes and obesity and as a frequent speaker on the public health implications of diabetes and obesity, she is a tireless supporter of patients. A longtime diabetes advocate, Kelly is on advisory boards for the JDRF, dLife, the Children with Diabetes Foundation, and the Diabetes Hands Foundation. Kelly is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Business School. She lives in San Francisco with her children Coco, Lola, and Valentino and husband John, with whom she runs Close Concerns.

JOHN CLOSE, CEO

John Close joined Close Concerns in 2006. Originally trained as a scientist, he spent six years in research, working for ICI in the UK. After receiving an MBA from INSEAD, the European Institute of Business Administration, he worked for five years as a management consultant at Bain & Company in San Francisco and Toronto, managing client engagements. Following Bain, he entered more entrepreneurial ventures, and has several successful high-tech start-ups now under his belt. Most recently, he was VP of Marketing at Lombardi Software. He now runs Close Concerns with Kelly, where his deep understanding of science and diabetes, along with his broad business and consumer marketing expertise, are major assets to Close Concerns.

Richard Wood

Richard Wood joined Close Concerns in 2008 from The Nielsen Company, where as VP of Consumer Insights at Nielsen Mobile, he managed the world�s largest syndicated market research program for the mobile telecommunications industry. He has extensive experience from a 20-year career in consumer research, industry research, technology and publishing, and an MBA from INSEAD, the European Institute of Business Administration. Richard heads Close Concerns' consumer market research business, dQ&A.

associates

Eric Chang

Eric Chang became a member of Close Concerns in 2009 after graduating from Pomona College summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in neuroscience. At Pomona, he received the Rena Gurley Archibald Prize, presented to the highest ranked student in the class of over 450 students. He spent the early years of his university life in the laboratory and clinic, investigating the therapeutic potential of homing endonucleases with Dr. Lenny Seligman at Pomona and volunteering at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. Following a semester abroad in Beijing and Inner Mongolia, he developed a passion for holistic approaches to healthcare. This interest translated into his senior thesis research in which he examined the neuroprotective effects of Panax ginseng and its constituent active compounds.

Liza GilhulyLiza Gilhuly joined Close Concerns as an Associate for the month of January 2010. She is currently a sophomore at Amherst College and a Chemistry/Mathematics double major. Liza has done a significant amount of work abroad, including volunteer work at an orphanage in Accra, Ghana and an internship during summer 2009 at the Southern African Media and Gender Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. At Amherst, Liza tutors junior high students in science and math. Much of her work at Close Concerns will focus on public health, a field she plans to pursue after graduation from Amherst.

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Jessica Swienckowski

Jessica Swienckowski joined Close Concerns in 2009 after graduating in 2008 from Vassar College Phi Beta Kappa with general honors and departmental honors in Neuroscience and a correlate in Molecular Biology. During her undergraduate career, Jessica devoted her summers to a wide breadth of research, including experiences at Dr. Michael F. Green's lab at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, Dr. Marco Iacoboni's lab at the Brain Mapping Center at UCLA, and Dr. Cynthia Kenyon's laboratory at the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at UCSF. Her senior project at Vassar concerned the developmental expression patterns of the microtubule-associated protein gene ptl-1 and its role in neuronal function in Caenorhabditus elegans. Her findings contributed to a research publication in Development, Genes, and Evolution. Following her graduation from Vassar, Jessica spent a year assisting in the oversight of the Writing Center at Swarthmore College.

Sanjay Trehan

Sanjay Trehan joined Close Concerns in 2009 after graduating from Brown University with a BS in Computational Biology. He has conducted computational biology research at Children's Hospital's (Boston) Informatics Program and Brown's Center for Computational Molecular Biology. More recently, he interned with Brown's Molecular and Cell Biology department, studying the genetic mechanisms that lead to aging in the fruit fly. Outside of the lab, Sanjay is the president and co-founder of a nonprofit tutoring company, Trehan Tutorials Inc., and is currently focusing his fascination with entrepreneurship and business strategy toward the life sciences industry.

Nick Wilkie

Nick Wilkie joined Close Concerns in 2009 as a full-time associate. He graduated from St. Olaf College with a BA in chemistry and psychology and then earned his master's degree in neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. For his master's research, he investigated the molecular biology of the neuroendocrine system and the effects of synthetic steroids on brain tumors. Following graduate study, he worked in a clinical DNA microarray laboratory analyzing small genetic aberrations in congenital developmental disorders. His primary interest in diabetes is the role of the nervous system and diabetes-related pathologies. He has a strong focus at Close Concerns on diabetes and obesity market research.

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WHAT WE DO

consulting
strategic advice and comprehensive information for those interested in the diabetes industry

diabetes close up
our monthly newsletter

industry reports
periodically we take the long view on trends or on specific breakthroughs.

TEAM

about us

contributors

Kaku Armah

Kaku Armah is an associate at Close Concerns. Kaku brings a passion for scientific inquiry and a deep interest in public health to the company; he graduated in 2007 from Amherst College with a degree in Chemistry and French. He spent his college days focusing on fluorescence spectroscopy in Amherst, ELISA assays in Dr. Hamer's HIV-AIDS research lab at the NIH, and macromolecular mass spectroscopy at the European Institute for Chemistry and Biology in Bordeaux. His strong knowledge of diabetes stems from experience helping family members who have the condition. Kaku manages diaTribe, Close Concerns' online newsletter for patients with diabetes (www.diaTribe.us). At Close Concerns, Kaku's primary areas of focus are diabetes technology, obesity devices and drugs, and inpatient diabetes management and tight glycemic control in the hospital setting.

Alisa Bekins

Alisa Bekins joined Close Concerns in 2005 as director of operations and marketing after working in the travel, entertainment, and PR industries for 15 years. She graduated from the University of North Dakota with a BA in Aviation. She has studied diabetes and diabetes-related complications for years, stemming from experiences with multiple family members and friends with diabetes. She has a keen interest in and knowledge of type 1 diabetes, medical devices to treat diabetes, and diabetes education. Alisa is a frequent contributer to diaTribe and Diabetes Close Up and runs all marketing and operations for Close Concerns.

Dan Belkin

Dan Belkin joined the Close Concerns team in June, 2006 after graduating from Amherst College magna cum laude with a degree in philosophy and worked full time with Close Concerns before starting medical school at Cornell in fall, 2007. His undergraduate thesis work involved "genealogy," a method more often used in the sciences but which has interesting philosophical applications. Dan has extensive research experience, having previously received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship to research various CNS-related hypotheses. Dan's various interests reflect a humanistic approach to life and medicine, and he approaches his work at Close Concerns in the same way. He is a frequent contributor to Diabetes Close Up and diaTribe and attends various conferences globally for Close Concerns. Dan is a co-author with Kelly Close and other Close Concerns team members on a poster that was presented at ADA in 2008 in San Francisco.

Michael Dougan

Michael Dougan is currently a third year student at Harvard Medical School and is a recent graduate of Harvard's PhD program in Immunology. Michael has had a longstanding interest in chronic diseases, particularly as they related to the body's interaction with the environment. He conducted his dissertation research in Dr. Glenn Dranoff's lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where he studied novel approaches to enhancing anti-tumor immunity. In addition to his research, Michael has been a teaching fellow for several graduate and undergraduate courses; his teaching was recognized in 2008 by Harvard's Levenson award. Michael received his AB from Amherst College in 2002, where he majored in Chemistry and English, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Michael has worked with Close Concerns part-time since 2006, primarily on Closer Look and Diabetes Close Up publications.

KATELYN GAMSON

Katelyn Gamson has been a contributor to Close Concerns since 2005-2006, when she worked for the company as an associate. Katelyn graduated from Amherst College in 2005 with a degree in chemistry; she is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Katelyn's experience with diabetes is prodigious; in 2003, working under the famed Dr. Lois Jovanovic, she conducted clinical research at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute to develop an algorithm that would suggest insulin dosages for patients with type 1 diabetes. While at Sansum, Katelyn co-authored an article on the safety and efficacy of insulin analogs in pregnancy; this article was published in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, with Katelyn as the primary author. While at Amherst, Katelyn was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for her research on diabetes. Katelyn is devoted to community service, and in addition to her work with Close Concerns, she also worked as an AmeriCorps member of the National AIDS Fund, in Washington, D.C. during 2006. Katelyn is now a medical student at UCSF and continues to contribute to Close Concerns. She is a co-author with Kelly Close and other Close Concerns team members on a poster that was presented at ADA in 2008 in San Francisco.

Rachael Hartman

Rachael Hartman has contributed to Close Concerns since 2005. In 2006, she completed her MBA at Harvard Business School, and earned her MD in 2007 at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. Before graduate school, Rachael spent two years working as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company, where she focused exclusively on healthcare clients. During medical school, Rachael worked as a Summer Associate in biotechnology equity research at Goldman Sachs. She also interned at Genentech in Commercial Operations during business school. Rachael graduated from the University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in the Biological Basis of Behavior (Neuroscience) and a minor in economics. She is now a Dermatology resident at NYU and continues to contribute to Closer Look and Diabetes Close Up.

JAMES S. HIRSCH

James S. Hirsch, a former reporter for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, is now a best-selling author whose next book, "CHEATING DESTINY: Life With Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic," was published in late 2006. Jim, who has type 1 diabetes, is also a field reporter and writer for dLife, the television show on diabetes. His previous books are HURRICANE: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter," "RIOT AND REMEMBRANCE: The Worst Race War and Its Legacy," and "TWO SOULS INDIVISIBLE: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam." He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a graduate degree from the LBJ School of Public Policy at the University of Texas.

Jenny Jin

Jenny Jin joined Close Concerns in 2006 after graduating Harvard College summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Chemistry. During college she devoted much time to basic science research beginning in summer 2004 when she studied the organ-specificity of eukaryotic heat shock protein TCP-1 at the Nanotechnology & Astrobiology Research Group at NASA Ames Research Center. Subsequently she joined Harvard Professor Greg Verdine's lab and worked on the crystallization of prokaryotic sporulation protein SpoIIIE. She received the Herchel Smith Undergraduate Research Fellowship to fund her research in summer 2005. In addition to her experimental work, Jenny has instructed in science as a Teaching Fellow for organic chemistry at Harvard. In college she also served as captain and president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Kendo Club and organized the 8th Annual Shoryuhai Kendo Tournament in April 2004, the largest intercollegiate kendo tournament in North America. She is currently a medical school student at UCSF.

Nupur Lala

Nupur Lala began work for Close Concerns as a summer intern in 2004; she returned to the company in the summers of 2005 and 2006. She is currently a student at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Prior to her matriculation, she was a National Merit Scholar who was awarded a Dean's Merit Scholarship to study at the University of Michigan. Nupur won the 1999 National Spelling Bee, in Washington DC; she was featured in a central role in the award-winning documentary Spellbound. Nupur's studies at UM center on biochemistry and pre-medical studies, in addition to Slavic languages and literatures.

Bradford Lee

Bradford Lee covers basic and clinical research for Close Concerns. He is now a student at Stanford Medical School, having graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in biochemistry. He was awarded a master's of science in health policy, planning, and financing at the London School of Economics in 2005. Brad is interested in the role of diabetes and obesity in minority populations, and in issues of poverty and social justice. He has conducted molecular biology research at the National Eye Institute as well as at Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Jen Lesser

Jen Lesser joined Close Concerns in early 2009. Jen graduated from Amherst College in 2007 with a BA in biology. During her junior year, she spent a semester studying biochemistry at the University of Oxford. After graduation she spent two years working in equity research at Lehman Brothers and then Barclays Capital. There, she was the sole research associate on the #1 ranked Institutional Investor Publishing and Advertising Services team. Starting in the fall of 2009, she will begin an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise at the University of Cambridge in England, a joint program between the School of Biotechnology and the School of Business to bridge the gap between healthcare and business. On a personal side, Jen is very active with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and is a member of the Young Leadership Committee (junior board).

Dana Lewis

Dana Lewis is contributing to Close Concerns while studying Public Relations, Political Science, and Computer-Based Honors at the University of Alabama. Type 1 since she was a young teenager, Dana is an enthusiastic diabetes advocate locally and nationally, from lobbying legislators to testifying before a US Senate committee. As a member of the US DAWN Youth Advisory Board, she recently co-authored a publication in Diabetes Voice highlighting the lack of psycho-social resources available to youth with diabetes called "Young people's needs and priorities for improved support and education: a call for action. In addition to actively volunteering for the American Diabetes Association and serving as a Youth Ambassador for the International Diabetes Federation, she designed and coordinated a class for first year students with diabetes and a health advocacy honors course which she will assist in teaching in 2008-2009.

Brendan Milliner

Brendan Milliner joined Close Concerns in June of 2008 after graduating from Amherst College with a degree in neuroscience. He brings to the team both a strong background in science and a dedication to public health and medicine. During his first few years of college he spent time in scientific research, working on projects with Dr. Aynsley Smith at the Mayo Clinic and Dr. Michael Rogawski in the epilepsy division of the National Institutes of Health. The spring and summer of his junior year were spent in Africa, where he was involved in community health projects with the Students' Health and Welfare Centres Organisation of Cape Town and the Cameroonian branch of United Action for Children. His senior thesis investigated the effects of drugs that enhance neural activity on changes in the sensory systems of the brain.

Martha Nelson

Martha Nelson served as a medical writer and researcher at Close Concerns from 2003 to 2005 and continues to cover basic and clinical research for the company. After graduating with a biology degree, magna cum laude, from Amherst College in January, 2004, she served as a full-time writer for Diabetes Close Up and worked on special reports and projects related to new scientific studies, drugs, and technology. Martha was a Howard Hughes summer research fellow at the Indian Health Service in Albuquerque, N.M., where she investigated how infectious disease contributed to diabetes among Native Americans. She continued to study infectious disease dynamics during her doctoral study, completing her PhD at the Pennsylvania State University in 2008 with a thesis titled 'The genomic evolution of influenza A virus.' Martha will continue to study the evolution of infectious disease as a post-doctoral researcher at the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC. Martha retains an acute interest in diabetes, particularly the role of infectious disease in its etiology, and continues to cover diabetes conferences on occasion for Close Concerns.

Winnie Rosbach

Winnie Rosbach brings to Close Concerns great knowledge and interest in children with type 1 diabetes. As the mother of a child with diabetes, she has direct experience with the issues that parents and families face with young diabetic children. Winnie is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and English.

Lisa Rotenstein

Lisa Rotenstein, a Close Concerns summer associate for 2009, is a rising junior at Harvard College concentrating in chemical and physical biology and economics. She conducts both basic and clinical research related to neural injury and neurochemistry at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Children�s Hospital of Boston. She spent last summer exploring the neurophysiology of stroke and the use of NIRS in neonates at Stanford Medical School and is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal. Beyond the lab and hospital, she is passionate about public health and public policy. Lisa founded the Harvard Healthcare Policy Group, is very involved with Project HEALTH Boston, and writes for the Harvard Political Review. She also works part-time with the Harvard College Consulting and Veritas Financial Groups.

Tony Sheng

Tony Sheng, a Close Concerns summer associate for 2009, is currently a student at Amherst College pursuing a double major in neuroscience and English. Over the past four years, Tony conducted several health-related research projects on topics ranging from stroke triage protocol to oral insulin delivery. In 2008 as a Cincinnati Children's Hospital summer undergraduate research fellow, he enrolled the first cohort of patients into the Epilepsy Phenome Genome Project with Dr. Tracy Glauser. In addition to frequent volunteering, Tony works as a Bonner Community Engagement Leader at the Center for Community Engagement. He also plays singles and doubles on the varsity tennis team.

Mark Sorrentino

Mark Sorrentino, a Close Concerns summer associate for 2009, is a rising junior molecular biology/biochemistry major and economics minor at Middlebury College. Mark is particularly interested in the therapeutic potential of insulin-independent glucose transport pathways. For his ongoing work at Middlebury, he is examining miRNA regulation of a protein regulating the stress response in Streptococcus Mutans.

Kerri Morrone Sparling

When it comes right down to it, there's little more important to Kerri than her family, her friends, and the Red Sox. Well-known in the diabetes community for her personal diabetes blog www.SixUntilMe.com and her position as Editor and Community Leader at dLife, Kerri has been living with type 1 diabetes since the second grade. She hides out in Connecticut with her husband and their parade of annoying cats.

Cullen Taniguchi

Cullen Taniguchi is currently an M.D./Ph.D. student in his fifth year at Harvard Medical School. He completed his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology in 2005 working with the President of the Joslin Diabetes Center, Dr. C. Ronald Kahn. Cullen's research examines the molecular mechanisms of type 2 diabetes, particularly insulin resistance in the liver, and how it may be a significant factor in how people develop the disease. Cullen attended Occidental College where he obtained an A.B. in chemistry and a minor in music. Cullen then spent two years in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar studying for a master of philosophy in Economic and Social History. Cullen plans on completing his M.D. in 2007, and pursuing a career in internal medicine/endocrinology.

Melissa Tjota

Melissa Tjota joined Close Concerns in 2008 as a full-time associate after graduating from Harvard College summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Biochemical Sciences and a secondary field in Spanish. During college she spent much of her time conducting research at Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Cambridge, MA; the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Experimental Immunology in Bonn, Germany; and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. Her undergraduate thesis work was carried out in the laboratory of Dr. Shannon Turley in which her project examined peripheral tissue antigen and cytokine expression in murine lymph node stromal cells and human mesenchymal stem cells. Melissa is now pursuing an MD/PhD at the University of Chicago.

Mark Yarchoan

Mark Yarchoan joined Close Concerns as a full-time associate in 2007 after graduating from Amherst College with a degree in neuroscience. Mark's undergraduate work was focused in basic sciences, and his thesis investigated the underlying mechanism of a phenomenon called "supernormality" that occurs in the nerve cord of the earthworm. For this thesis work he received the Amherst College James Olds Memorial Neuroscience Award. As an associate at Close Concerns, Mark covered over 30 diabetes and obesity conferences and managed Diabetes Close Up. He was a co-author with other members of the Close Concerns team of a poster presented at the 2008 ADA conference (864-P), and he has a deep interest in all aspects of diabetes, particularly drug development. Mark is currently a medical school student at the University of Pennsylvania, and he remains a frequent contributor to Diabetes Close Up and Closer Look.