Our research projects

Insulin-making beta cells respond differently to stress in women and men. Dr Aileen King wants to understand why this is, and if treatments tailored to men and women could treat both type 1 and type 2 diabetes more effectively. 

Many people who use metformin to manage their type 2 diabetes, often need to start on a second medication to control blood sugar levels. Dr Beall wants to better understand the effect of metformin in the brain and why this may cause some people with type 2 to stop responding to it over time. He’ll also shed new light on if and how metformin may have anti-inflammatory effects in the brain. In the future this could help us to understand who is more likely to need an add on treatment and open-up new ways to keep the brain healthy in people with diabetes. 

When the immune system attacks the pancreas in type 1 diabetes, the body responds with inflammation which can damage insulin-producing beta cells. Transplants of pancreas cells, called islet transplants, can be used to treat some people with type 1 diabetes, but they don’t always work. Dr Chloe Rackham wants to understand how shape-shifting stem cells can protect transplanted cells from damage caused by inflammation. This could help to make islet transplants more successful in the future and could open up ways to delay or prevent type 1 diabetes. 

A rare type of diabetes, known as syndromic diabetes, is caused by changes in certain genes. But so far only half of the genetic changes behind the condition have been found. Dr Patel aims to find more of the genes that could be causing syndromic diabetes. This would mean more people get the right diabetes diagnosis and care.  

In people with Type 2 diabetes, insulin-producing cells stop working properly over time. Dr Paul Caton thinks that this is down to a molecule called NAD, which is found at lower levels in the pancreas of people with Type 2 diabetes. He will test whether boosting the levels of NAD could increase numbers of insulin-producing cells. This could lead to new, better treatments that work to stop the progression of Type 2 diabetes.

The current test for gestational diabetes can be inaccurate, expensive, inconvenient, and unappealing for many women. Professor Claire Meek wants to develop a new test that could tackle these problems. A better test could help more women with gestational diabetes to get an easier diagnosis, as well as the support they need as they go through pregnancy. 

Obesity is linked with a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But to better understand the complex biological mechanisms that link to the two conditions, scientists need better ways of studying them in the lab. Dr Nicola Contessi Negrini is testing a new specialised material that she hopes will better recreate human body fat. This could open doors to new avenues of research that lead to new understanding about the root causes of type 2 diabetes and how to treat it. 

Diabetes can cause many complications including foot ulcers. These can lead to a significantly higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and a shortened lifespan. Professor Khunti and his team are researching the best way to reduce these so that people with diabetes and foot ulcers can have healthier and longer lives. 

Scientists have found a protein, called LRG1, plays a role in the early stages of eye damage in people with diabetes. Dr Giulia De Rossi wants to know how exactly this protein causes problems and if their new treatment that blocks it could help prevent eye damage. This could take us closer to better treatments that could be given earlier to protect the sight of people with diabetes. 

Scientists think that gestational diabetes could be split into two main subtypes. Dr Sara White will find out if measurements of babies from ultrasound scans could be used to identify which subtype of gestational diabetes a woman has. This could help doctors to tailor and improve care, potentially reducing the risk of pregnancy complications for hundreds of thousands of women in the UK every year.