Our research projects

Type 3c diabetes develops because of damage to the pancreas. It often goes misdiagnosed and there’s no tailored treatment or care for people living with it. Professor James Shaw is testing existing drugs to see if they could help to repair the pancreas and boost insulin production. This research could pave the way for more effective treatments, helping those with type 3c diabetes better manage their blood sugar levels.

A potential transformative treatment for type 1 diabetes is to replace insulin-making beta cells that have been destroyed with new ones, so that people can make their own insulin again. Professor Shanta Persaud is testing a new and improved method to grow new beta cells in the lab from stem cells. Having an unlimited supply of lab-made beta cells would bring us closer to a cure for type 1 diabetes, and this project could see us get there sooner. 

Around 20-30% of people living with diabetes have problems with wounds that fail to heal, which can lead to serious health problems. Dr Hiebert’s team want to understand how a new type of biological scaffolding, which supports cells and tissues in the body, could be used to help wounds heal better and faster. This treatment could prevent people with diabetes from experiencing the serious complications of wounds that don’t heal. 

High blood sugar levels can lead to damage to our eyes, known as retinopathy. Professor Karl Matter thinks that a protein called MarvelD3, which helps cells to stick together in blood vessels, might hold some answers. His research could give us valuable new insights to help develop innovative approaches to protect blood vessels and prevent sight loss in people with diabetes.

Antidepressant drugs have been found to help lower blood sugar levels in people living with type 2 diabetes and depression. Dr Liu’s team want to explore whether the drugs can protect insulin-producing beta cells, and how they do this. In the future, this could help scientists to repurpose antidepressants to open the door to new ways to treat type 1 or type 2 diabetes. 

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.

It’s possible to identify people who are very likely to develop type 1 diabetes by looking for signs in the blood that indicate the immune system has started to plan an attack on the pancreas. Professor Parth Narendran is exploring how a programme to test children for these signs and find out their risk of type 1 diabetes would best work in the UK.

The ELSA study will screen 20,000 children using a simple blood test. Screening can help to make sure children have the earliest, safest diagnosis possible. And children found to be at risk could be eligible for trials of promising new treatments. ELSA will give us vital insights that could help lead to a routine, widespread type 1 diabetes screening programme in the UK.

The pancreas-liver-gut axis are a group of organs that work together to control blood sugar levels. Changes in blood flow in these organs have been found in type 2 diabetes. Professor Murphy plans to understand these blood flow changes better and see if they hold the answer to improving current type 2 diabetes treatments or finding new ones. 

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.

The bacteria living in our gut play an important role in our health, and could have a hand in the development of type 2 diabetes. Professor Dumas will study the gut bacteria of people who are at high risk of type 2 diabetes to discover which species of bacteria could be involved in either increasing or reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. This could help scientists to develop new treatments that change the makeup of our gut bacteria and help to prevent type 2 diabetes.