- New funding will be split between 14 new research projects and five new PhD grants
- New research includes projects investigating whether medieval remedies can be used to treat foot ulcers, and if sleep disturbances can predict Type 2 diabetes
Diabetes UK has committed to invest £2.6 million in 19 brand new projects which aim to make life-changing improvements in diabetes care, and reduce people’s risk of Type 2 diabetes.
The funding will be given to projects looking into Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes. In one of these projects, Dr Freya Harrison, from the University of Warwick, will be using medieval remedies to find new sources of antibiotics. She has already discovered a combination that can kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the lab. Dr Harrison will study this remedy further to investigate how it works and if it could be used to treat infected foot ulcers in the future.
There are more than 20 leg, foot and toe amputations each day due to diabetes, four out of five of which could be prevented. This research hopes to reduce the number of diabetes-related amputations and cases of sepsis, by treating foot ulcer infections more effectively.
Dr Martin Rutter, from the University of Manchester, has also been awarded Diabetes UK funding to find out if sleep problems can help predict who might be at risk of Type 2 diabetes. He will also look at whether sleep patterns in people with Type 2 diabetes can affect their blood glucose control, and their risk of serious diabetes-related complications, such as amputation, heart disease and blindness … read more