Dr. Mao is a Pediatric Endocrinologist who joined the faculty at Harbor-UCLA in 1998 after completing her fellowship training in Pediatric Endocrinology here. Her research has focused on the study of various aspects of glucose metabolism using stable isotopes and acetaminophen conjugates as a noninvasive probe of liver glucose metabolism in subjects with diabetes and the use of plasma insulin oscillations to evaluate pancreatic beta cell dysfunction in new onset type 1 and type 2 diabetes. As a Clinical Associate Physician (CAP), Dr. Mao has investigated the biochemical processes of urea synthesis and renal ammonium excretion to include the interrelationships of ammonium excretion and renal gluconeogenesis in Type I diabetes, utilizing the common intermediates of gluconeogenesis. Dr. Mao also has a particular interest in the identification of children at risk for the onset of Type 2 diabetes among Latino children and adolescents and in the development of intervention techniques to delay its onset, if not its outright prevention.