Our research projects

Some people with type 1 diabetes have low levels of magnesium in their blood, which can increase their risk of blood clots and heart attacks and strokes. Dr Alan Stewart wants to dig deeper into how magnesium could influence clotting and diabetes complications, and find out if magnesium supplements could offer new and simple way to drive down risks and save lives. 

People with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of depression. And people with depression have a higher risk of type 2. But there’s lots we don’t understand about how exactly the two conditions are connected. Dr Tyrrell wants to unravel more about the complicated relationship between the conditions and the impact of living with both type 2 and depression on health. This could lead to better ways to treat people with both conditions.

Type 1 diabetes develops when the immune system attacks and destroys insulin-making beta cells. Dr Matthew Johnson and his team will study a rare type of diabetes that could help us better understand why the immune system turns on beta cells, and how this process may differ between people. This could pave the way towards new treatments that protect the pancreas from harm in people with or at risk of type 1 diabetes.

Women who’ve had gestational diabetes have a 10-fold higher risk of later developing type 2 diabetes. Dr Nerys Astbury and her PhD student will develop a ‘calculator’ to predict which women have the highest risk. They’ll then create a new, tailored treatment that aims to help women reduce their risk. This research could help to prevent more cases of type 2 in women who’ve had gestational diabetes, giving women healthier futures.

Using steroids can increase the risk of developing a specific type of diabetes called steroid diabetes. It can also lead to higher blood sugar levels in people with other types of diabetes. Dr Katharine Lazarus will explore if a type 2 diabetes medication, called semaglutide, could help to lower this risk and lower blood sugar levels. This study could pave the way for a safer steroid use for people with or at risk of diabetes.

Tiny variations in our genes can affect insulin receptors, which sit on the surface of our cells and allow insulin to enter. Problems with insulin receptors affect how our body responds to insulin and can cause severe insulin resistance. Professor Semple and his student want to find out how thousands of different genetic variations affect how the insulin receptor works, and which variations contribute to insulin resistance. They hope this will make it easier to diagnose people with rare types of diabetes and help them learn more about how insulin works in all types of diabetes, paving the way to new insulins or ways of making insulin work better. 

Women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes are at a higher risk of stillbirth and premature birth. Dr Sharon Mackin and her team will analyse national data in Scotland to identify the causes and risk factors for these outcomes. This could lead to better care and decision-making around delivery timing, so that more mothers with diabetes experience a healthy pregnancy and give birth to healthy babies.

Scientists can grow new insulin-producing beta cells in the lab, but they don’t work as well as ‘real’ beta cells. Dr Ildem Akerman will test out a new way to improve how we make lab-grown beta cells, she hopes this will make them work better and be more responsive to changes in blood sugar. In the future, we hope lab-grown beta cells could be transplanted into people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes to replace the cells that have been destroyed or stopped working, and this project could help us take a huge step towards that goal.

Professor Timothy 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.

Muscle damage is a common but under-studied complication of type 2 diabetes. It reduces mobility and can affect independence. Professor Lee Roberts will explore if a drug licensed to treat problems with how the body processes iron could help to improve muscle health and quality of life. This could improve our understanding of muscle damage in people with type 2 diabetes and provide us with better ways to treat it.