Our research projects

Having diabetes can lead to damaged blood vessels in the retina at the back of the eye, caused by high blood sugar levels. This can lead to vision problems and sight loss. Dr Judith Lechner wants to find out if a protective protein can be used to repair and reduce this damage, and potentially be used as a new treatment option in the future.

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.

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.

Weight loss can lead to remission of type 2 diabetes but losing weight can be difficult. Professor Jebb aims to create a new NHS support service for people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and living with overweight or obesity, so they can try out different weight loss programmes and find the one that’s right for them. This could make all the difference in giving more people the chance to go into remission.

Sometimes insulin can cause cells to multiply rather than bringing down blood sugar levels. This can increase the risk of some cancers in people with diabetes. Prof Nia Bryant wants to better understand how and why insulin can have this effect. With her PhD student, she will pinpoint the specific areas on cells that causes insulin to lower blood sugars and not to tell cells to multiply. In the future, this could help scientists develop new treatments for people with diabetes that aren’t linked with an increased risk of cancer.

As type 2 diabetes develops, alpha cells in the pancreas fail. Professor Hodson has found that a protein called GC plays a key role in how alpha cells function. He will run experiments to figure out how the loss of GC impacts why alpha cells go wrong in type 2 diabetes. In the future, this could lead to new treatments for type 2 diabetes that help to keep alpha cells working and give people better blood sugar control. 

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. 

High blood sugar levels can damage blood vessels, and over time this can lead to diabetes complications. Professor David Long will enhance a pioneering new way of growing blood vessels in the lab to study how they behave in diabetes. Understanding what happens to blood vessels in high sugar levels could help researchers to develop new treatments that prevent or slow all sorts of complications. 

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.