The diabetes directorate has benefited significantly from its academic presence. Led by Professor Anthony Barnett, the directorate has had a rich research portfolio over 3 decades. The research team have made significant contributions to advancement of diabetes in the field of genetics of diabetes, diabetic nephropathy and diabetes care delivery particularly to people of south Asians ethnicity. The United Kingdom Asian Diabetes Study (UKADS) is one of the few randomised controlled trials conducted in the south Asian population with type 2 diabetes and has led to several important publications in major journals such as the Lancet and Diabetes Care.
The Diabetes Unit is recognized as being in the top 25 research active global centres for research into Diabetes and its complications.According to- isinet.com-essential science indicators- only us and Oxford are in this group from the UK.The academics have also produced over 100 peer reviewed papers in the last 3 years including Lancet,Nature Genetics,Brit Med J,Diabetes,Diabetes Care,Diabetologia with chapter contributions to “Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology” and “International Textbook of Diabetes” and authored several standard texts.We also have acted as advisors to NICE and represented the EASD for 6 years at the European Medicines Agency on Diabetes related drugs(2006-2011 inclusive).
Currently there are several ongoing projects including evaluation of the role of sleep apnoea in diabetes complications, characterisation of young Type 2 diabetes cohort and interventions to treat diabetic neuropathy. The research team comprises of Prof Barnett, Prof Stevens, Dr Taheri, Dr Bellary and Dr Tahrani and is also supported by three dedicated research nurses. The diabetes research team has strong links with many UK universities including Birmingham, Warwick, Aston and Leicester.
