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LIVING
Breaking new ground
Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge awards £5m to
leading researchers, accelerating the race to cure
Type 1 diabetes.
The Type 1 Diabetes Grand
Challenge, a ground-breaking
partnership between the
Steve Morgan Foundation,
Diabetes UK and JDRF UK, has
announced funding of three major
research projects, kicking off the race
to a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Three leading UK researchers
at the University of Dundee, the
University of Exeter and Imperial
College London have been awarded
prestigious fellowships totalling £5m.
Made possible by the generous
£50m donation from the Steve
Morgan Foundation, the three
ambitious research projects could
help unlock life-changing new
treatments for type 1 diabetes, and
will focus on two key research areas,
the first to develop treatments to
replace or rescue insulin-producing
beta cells, and the second to
understand the root causes of Type
1 diabetes and how to stop the
immune attack.
Dr James Cantley, Reader in
Systems Medicine at the University
of Dundee aims to develop new
treatments that will encourage beta
cell growth in people with Type 1
diabetes. This could help people
make their own insulin again without
the body rejecting the beta cells
which is a risk with transplanted
'foreign' beta cells. Dr Cantley will
explore promising drugs designed
to reactivate the process by which
beta cells form in the womb. He
will also explore potential ways
to expand beta cells that have
survived the immune attack in Type
1 diabetes. These new avenues could
open the door for clinical trials into
new treatments for people with
Type 1 diabetes.
Commenting on the news, Cantley
said: "Regenerating beta cells in
We are on the
cusp of a new era
of Type 1 diabetes
treatment, and
I can't wait to
see where this
research takes
us ~ Dr James
Cantley