Our research projects

Weight gain is an important risk factor for type 2 diabetes. A lot of research studies focus on what’s happening inside fat cells to try and explain why insulin no longer works properly. Dr Kang now plans to study what’s happening just outside fat cells to find more answers and a better understanding about the link between weight gain and type 2 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.

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. 

Transplants of insulin-producing beta cells from donors into people with type 1 diabetes, called ‘islet transplants’, have been shown to temporarily remove the need for insulin injections in many cases. However, there aren’t enough beta cells available for everyone who needs a transplant. Dr Elisa De Franco wants to find the genes that control the development of beta cells, by studying babies born with neonatal diabetes, to see if these genes could be used to make beta cells in the lab.

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.  

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.

Type 1 diabetes develops when a person’s immune system attacks and destroys their insulin-making beta cells. Dr Leete will study pancreas samples from people with type 1 diabetes to figure out why the immune system turns on beta cells, and how this process may differ between people, especially those diagnosed at different ages. In the future this could lead to more personalised treatments to delay or prevent type 1 diabetes.

High blood sugar levels can affect the way kidney cells talk to each other, which can lead to kidney damage. Professor Claire Hills wants to understand the different languages that kidney cells speak and which ones are dangerous to kidney cell health. This will help researchers to create new treatments that translate or stop the dangerous languages and reduce the risk of complications in people living with diabetes.

Beta cells release insulin into the blood stream, but this complex process isn’t well understood. Dr Benoit Hastoy wants to investigate the process in more detail, to try and improve the effectiveness of existing treatments for people with type 2 diabetes.