Our research projects

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.

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. 

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.

Diabetes kidney disease mostly affects older people with type 2 diabetes. It can progress over time until the kidneys stop working and can result in further serious complications, like heart attack or stroke. Professor Dasgupta’s team will find out whether a prompt, which appears on computer screens, could improve how doctors give advice to older people with type 2 and kidney disease. And if this better guidance could help to slow kidney damage, helping people live healthier, happier 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.

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. 

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.

Researchers are building AI-powered tools that can identify people most at risk of diabetes complications before they develop. Dr Rebecca Thomas is exploring how people with diabetes feel towards AI being used in this way, and receiving results about their future complications risk. This will inform recommendations on how to communicate AI-driven risk predictions in a way that builds trust and understanding, supporting both physical health and emotional well-being.

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

The ELSA study will screen 60,000 children using simple blood tests. This will give us vital insights that could help lead to a routine, widespread type 1 diabetes screening programme in the UK. Screening can help to make sure families are forewarned and prepared, so a type 1 diabetes diagnosis doesn't have to start with a crisis. It could also give children the opportunity to access new treatments that delay the need for insulin therapy.