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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 Christiana Lekka, of the University of Exeter, is studying how type 1 diabetes (T1D) may affect the overall structure of the pancreas. The end goal of her research is to better understand how T1D can affect the entire organ, rather than just the insulin-producing cells (beta cells).
Dr. Ali Shilleh, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, is studying how cell signals are organised inside lab-grown insulin-producing cells. Understanding these signals could help scientists improve future cell replacement therapies for people with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Dr Rachel Sumner and her team at the University of Bristol are investigating diabetes burnout, and how better to understand it. Diabetes burnout affects around one third of people with type 1 diabetes (T1D), and although known about, it is poorly understood. The researchers aim to find investigate the biological and psychosocial impacts of diabetes burnout, to further help future studies.
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).
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