Our research projects

Type 2 diabetes develops when insulin-producing beta cells stop working correctly. Two proteins related to the health of these cells have been identified. Dr Calum Sutherland wants to examine how changing the levels and activity of these proteins affects the health of the beta cells and the amount of insulin they release. Better understanding of the role these proteins play in insulin production could leads to new treatments for people with type 2 diabetes or to prevent the condition in those at risk.

Insulin-making beta cells are powered by energy factories within the cells, called mitochondria. Dr De Franco will look at the genes from babies who have too high or too low blood sugar levels to find genetic changes that alter how mitochondria power beta cells. This could give us a better idea about how mitochondria help to keep blood sugar levels normal and could lead to new and improved treatments for diabetes.  

Pregnant women with diabetes have a higher chance of their babies being born with heart problems. Dr Chivers is researching the factors that can cause this and also better ways of working out which babies are at greatest risk. In the future, this could help give better care to pregnant women with diabetes and their babies. 

Mitochondria are important in powering our cells. Mitochondria that don’t work properly are usually replaced by new ones. But in diabetes this system doesn’t work properly and this can lead to sight loss. Dr Romero is working to understand how this happens and whether a new treatment to help mitochondria could stop eye damage. 

Researching fat cells provides a chance to better understand the link between insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. A substance in the blood called ADMA changes how fat cells work. Dr Salt is going to compare ADMA in fat cells of humans and mice to understand why this happens. This could open the door to new ways of preventing or treating type 2 diabetes. 

It’s not always easy to diagnose which type of diabetes a person has. This is because the symptoms and test results can overlap, particularly in people from some ethnic groups. In this project, Dr Shields will improve calculators used to get the diagnosis right in many more people with diabetes. 

People with diabetes can develop damage to the blood vessels in their kidney. A protein, called VEGFC, can protect against this damage. Dr Foster plans to develop a new treatment, based on VEGFC . She’ll find out if the novel approach can help cells to maintain protective levels of VEGFC to prevent kidney damage. This could lead to new treatments that protect people with diabetes from potentially life-threatening kidney complications.

Dr Emma Vincent wants to understand why people with type 2 diabetes are more likely to develop certain types of cancer than people without type 2. She will be investigating changes inside the body that may encourage these cancers to develop. Dr Vincent hopes that by understanding these processes, we will be able to find ways to protect people with type 2 diabetes from developing certain cancers in the future.

Established in 2011, ADDRESS-2 is a database of information from of people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes who have agreed to be involved in research. This new funding will continue to support the program and allow the team recruit more people. The team will work with the type 1 diabetes Immunotherapy Consortium to increase the number of people recruited into immunotherapy trials. These trials aim to find new ways to prevent, or cure, type 1 diabetes.

People from South Asian and Black Caribbean backgrounds are at a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, and it appears that they may also have more difficulty controlling blood glucose levels and avoiding complications.

Dr Sophie Eastwood wants to compare different medications for people with type 2 diabetes from European, South Asian and African Caribbean origin. She hopes to find the treatments that work best for South Asian and Black Caribbean people, to help them control their blood glucose levels.