Our research projects

Having gestational diabetes can increase the risk of getting type 2 diabetes in later life for both mother and baby. Dr Bowe wants to better understand why. He will study changes in the pancreas that happen during pregnancy in women with gestational diabetes to find out if, and how, this has a lasting impact which puts mum and baby at a greater risk of type 2. This could inform new treatments to help women and their children reduce their risk and make sure fewer people get type 2 diabetes in the future.

Kidney disease is a common complication for people with diabetes. Evidence suggests that important tubes in our kidneys called lymphatic vessels may play a role in the development of diabetic kidney disease. Dr David Long wants to study the lymphatic vessels during the development of kidney disease, and look for ways to stop and reverse any damage to the kidneys. This could lead to the development of new treatments for kidney disease in the future.

Dr Yaghootkar will study genes to understand what protects some people living with obesity from developing type 2 diabetes. She would like to understand how certain genes influence the way we store fat and if they can protect people from developing type 2 diabetes. Dr Yaghootkar hopes that understanding why certain people are naturally protected from type 2 diabetes may help to develop better treatments and prevention strategies in the future.

Dr Tim Tree and researchers across the UK will set up a network of specialist labs to examine samples from all UK-based trials of immunotherapies for type 1 diabetes. They will carry out state-of-the-art studies of their safety and effectiveness to understand exactly how treatments work to control the immune system, and who could benefit most from different treatments. In the future, immunotherapies could give us a way to prevent, halt and cure type 1 diabetes.

Being a teenager with type 1 diabetes can be tough, coming with an added set of physical and emotional demands. YES is a new type 1 education programme designed specifically for young people. Professor Forbes will test how useful young people with type 1 diabetes find the programme, and find out if it could support them to live well with their diabetes, potentially protecting their health both now and in the long run.

People living with insulin resistance can help to manage their blood sugar levels by making healthier food choices. But a hormone called oxytocin has been found to play a part in the foods we tend to prefer. Dr John Menzies wants to find out more about the link between oxytocin and insulin resistance. Understanding how different hormone levels change in diabetes will help researchers to develop new treatments helping people to make healthier food choices. 

Professor Helen Colhoun and her team will look for specific genes involved in type 1 diabetes and its complications, to provide insight into the complex pathways involved. This will help to develop new therapies for type 1 diabetes that aim to target those pathways. 

Up to a quarter of people with type 2 diabetes have binge eating disorder, but currently diabetes-specific support is lacking. Dr Gemma Traviss-Turner plans to adapt an online treatment programme that has shown success in helping people without diabetes manage their binge eating disorder, to meet the needs of people with type 2.

One of the leading causes of sight loss in people with diabetes is retinopathy. The current treatment for retinopathy isn’t effective in everybody, so Professor Tim Curtis wants to find a new approach. He believes that channels on the surface of cells in blood vessels in the retina could be the answer. His team will investigate how these channels work and what happens to them in people with diabetes, with the hope of developing new ways to reduce the risk of retinopathy.