Newcastle University has an illustrious history in diabetes research with a focus on ensuring that new findings in the laboratory or innovative clinical trials are made available to patients regionally and nationally through dedicated National Health Service adoption.
The hypoCOMPaSS study has confirmed that awareness of hypoglycaemia can be restored in most people with even long-standing type 1 diabetes – preventing further life-threatening severe hypoglycaemic events. Equivalent benefits were attainable with and without insulin pumps / continuous glucose monitoring. Further research is planned to test how much benefit can be achieved simply with the teaching tool we designed for the trial – my hypo compass. In parallel with this research we have set up a dedicated new type 1 diabetes clinic at Newcastle Diabetes Centre, co-led by Prof James Shaw and Dr Stuart Little with a particular focus on hypoglycaemia. In addition to our large insulin pump service we are fortunate in having secured Regional Consensus Guidelines enabling provision of continuous glucose monitoring for selected adults and children with challenging type 1 diabetes.
The Institute of Transplantation at the Freeman hospital provides a tertiary referral service for both pancreas and islet transplantation. These procedures are currently only suitable for a small minority with life-threatening diabetes given the need for long term immunsuppression.
In the laboratory we are working on regenerative medicine approaches to increase the success of islet transplantation and ultimately to regenerate insulin-secreting cells in people with diabetes without an invasive operation.
Our 3 Main Goals are:
* To improve quality of life for all with type 1 diabetes * To provide life-saving islet transplantation for those at highest risk from dangerous hypoglycaemia * To pioneer curative therapies, leading to long-term freedom from daily insulin injections
Group Leader:
James Shaw – Professor of Regenerative Medicine for Diabetes and Honorary Consultant Physician at Newcastle Diabetes Centre and the Freeman Hospital.
This is a very positive time for those affected by Type 1 diabetes – with the real prospect of a future without long-term complications almost within reach.
In addition to our existing grant funding, we are absolutely dependent on donations to maintain and increase our international competitiveness and to eventually find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
So far, funding has allowed us to establish the Islet Isolation and Innovation Hub at Newcastle University, a unique facility dedicated to the manufacture of human insulin-producing islets of the highest quality from research donor pancreas. These islets are vital for enabling key research projects within the Newcastle University Institute of Cellular Medicine and the North East Stem Cell Institute, as well as with our collaborators worldwide. Our research targets curative therapies for diabetes as well as deepening our understanding of diabetes in all of its forms.
Newcastle University’s Hub is aiming to develop a cost-effective process to ensure a constant supply of this invaluable resource for laboratory studies from pancreases provided through the selfless generosity of organ donors and their families.
Currently, each islet isolation takes up to 8 hours with 3 highly experienced members of staff and costs £4,000 to complete.
Our goal is to raise £24,000 to acquire state-of-the-art equipment to aid the islet isolation process, which will free up our highly skilled scientists and allow them to focus on other aspects of this crucial research.
The Newcastle team is absolutely dedicated to ensuring that therapeutic breakthroughs for Type 1 diabetes patients are made here, in the North East, and are translated into clinical benefit as quickly as possible regionally, nationally and around the world.
Recent Successes from the Group:
– The HypoCOMPaSS study, which has confirmed that severe hypoglycaemia can be sustainably prevented in 80% of people who have had Type 1 diabetes for many years and have lost hypoglycaemia (low sugar reactions) awareness.
– The Freeman Hospital is a leading centre for transplantation of insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells. The Newcastle team has recently published evidence confirming how effective this procedure is for those with life-threatening hypoglycaemia.
– Based on charitable donation from the Foundation of Edith and Arthur Wilson, Newcastle University has established the Islet Isolation and Innovation Hub at the International Centre for Life. This is unique in the UK in employing an international team of clinically experienced islet isolators to focus on new approaches which we believe will lead to transformative successes in regenerative medicine for diabetes over the coming years.
For further information about the research we do please go to
http://www.newcastleptd.com/programme/regenerative-medicine-diabetes/
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/icm/research/diabetes/