Launch of diabetes research centre

The University's diabetes laboratories have been awarded Centre status to promote communication amongst the research and clinical groups and to raise public awareness of their work - reinforcing the University’s standing as one of the world’s key hubs of research into this disease.

The Centre is a joint venture between the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing, which currently hosts over 25 research teams that have a shared interest in Diabetes research, ranging from the study of single molecules to complex clinical studies.

The main role of the Centre, which has been set up for a period of 5 years, is to encourage and facilitate interactions between basic and clinical Diabetes research. The Centre will help provide funds to initiate pilot collaborative studies between research groups and also to enable students to attend courses or visit other labs to acquire new skills and techniques that can be subsequently set up at the University. Another goal is to participate in the recruitment of internationally renowned Diabetes researchers to work at the University.

The Centre will support the costs required for networking of diabetes researchers, an annual meeting, an invited prominent international seminar speaker and the establishment of a dedicated website for the scientists. The annual meetings will allow current research to be presented and discussed, to maximise collaboration between the different groups and provide a platform for clinicians and researchers to be kept informed of relevant basic research going on in Dundee.

The Centre was launched with a lecture from Professor Gerald Shulman, Yale Medical School, New Haven on "Cellular mechanisms of insulin resistance in humans."

Professor Dario Alessi, diabetes researcher in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the School of Life Sciences, is Director of the Centre; Dr Calum Sutherland, a Diabetes UK Senior Fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in Ninewells Hospital, is Assistant Director.

On the establishment of the Centre Dario said, "There is a tremendous amount of important and exciting research into all aspects of Diabetes being undertaken at the University. We hope that the creation of the Dundee Diabetes Research Centre will stimulate interactions between basic and clinical researchers which will further enhance the quality of the work that is taking place".