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. 

Insulin-producing cells in our pancreas have a molecule on their surface, called GLP-1R, which instructs them to release insulin. Some people have a change in their GLP-1R gene which makes GLP-1R do its job better. Dr Tomas and her PhD student will study this genetic change in detail to understand how it helps our pancreas to make more insulin and how it could protect against type 2 diabetes and its complications.

Diabetic foot ulcers are a common complication of all types of diabetes. Professor Reeves has found that a new type of ‘smart’ shoe insole technology, which raises an alarm when levels of pressure on the feet are too high, can reduce the risk of foot ulcers. To build more evidence on the technology’s effectiveness he will compare different types of smart insoles to find which is best at reducing high pressure. This research could help people with diabetes get the best possible care to protect their foot health.

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.

In type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance means that people can’t properly use the insulin they make, causing blood sugar levels to go up. Professor Gould will research whether these insulin problems are due to mystery factors in the blood. This may lead to new blood tests that can predict if someone is likely to develop type 2 diabetes. The tests may also pick up whether there are specific subtypes of type 2 diabetes that are more likely to respond to certain treatments.  

Our cells have engines, called mitochondria, which power them. In insulin-making cells, the mitochondria tell the cells how and when to release insulin. When blood sugar levels are high, for example when someone has type 2 diabetes, this process stops working properly. Dr Aida Martinez-Sanchez wants to investigate why this happens by studying how the gene Mtfp1 plays a part how beta cell mitochondria behave. Understanding this could help researchers to develop better treatments that may stop type 2 diabetes from progressing.

High blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels in the eye. The treatments we have that help to slow this damage and prevent sight loss don’t work for everyone and we urgently need new ones. Dr Medina found a protein, called BMP9, that can protect blood vessels in mice. In this project he’ll unpick how this protein works and test if a treatment that delivers it to the eye could help to prevent retinopathy. This could lead to new, better treatments that work for more people with diabetes and help to prevent sight loss.