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Home > About Breakthrough T1D UK & our impact > Our research > Research projects > What can pancreatic function tell us about how quickly type 1 diabetes develops?
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The team’s initial research, using data from identical twins, showed that it is possible to detect small changes in pancreatic function before a person starts to experience symptoms of T1D. This could help us to identify if people in the early stages of developing T1D are likely to progress quickly or more slowly.
We know that the pancreas gets smaller with the development of T1D and that this can start happening even before a person develops any symptoms. The team will use existing tests to measure changes in pancreatic function over time and use this as an indirect measure of the size of the pancreas.
In this project, Kathleen and her team will use existing samples from large research studies and analyse existing data taken from different time points. By analysing multiple samples from identical twins, the team will work out whether certain biological features are linked to when people go on to develop T1D symptoms.
Thanks to research, we can now identify people who are at in the early stages of developing T1D. Unfortunately, we are not able to predict how quickly their condition will progress, this is an essential question for any person who has been told they are at in the early stages of developing T1D. The team hope that this project will improve understanding of how T1D progresses in at these people.
We are also funding another project being run by Dr Kathleen Gillespie and her team, to investigate how signalling molecules on immune cells might contribute to the development of T1D. That research project will tell us more about how immune cells travel to the pancreas, as well as how they attack and destroy healthy cells in the pancreas.
Dr Rachael Hughson-Gill is a researcher at the University of Lincoln, who is studying how body image issues affect young women with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Dr Gordon Sloan and his team at the University of Sheffield are researching a new method to identify nerve pain (neuropathy) in teens and young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Dr Tom Wylie’s pioneering research project investigating the psychological impact of type 1 diabetes (T1D), in partnership with the Daphne Jackson Trust.
Dr Kathleen Gillespie and her team are researching how signalling molecules help coordinate immune cell attacks on the pancreas, contributing to T1D development.
