Approved Research

Identifying and characterizing clinical, environmental, and genetic risk factors for diabetic complications and other diabetes related traits.

Lay summary

Over 500 million people worldwide have diabetes, characterized by an elevated blood sugar level. Over time, the elevated blood sugar level causes chronic diabetic complications affecting more than a half of the individuals with diabetes. These complications include major causes of death, such as chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and stroke) and other complications that additionally reduce the quality of life, e.g., by increasing the risk blindness (diabetic retinopathy) or lower limb amputations (peripheral arterial disease). Individuals with type 1 diabetes - the most common chronic disease in children - have a particularly high lifetime risk of complications as they develop diabetes early in life; up to 20% develop end-stage kidney disease requiring regular dialysis treatment or kidney transplantation for survival.

Despite the severity and high prevalence of complications in individuals with diabetes, the pathogenesis of diabetic complications remains poorly understood. Currently treatment of diabetic complications focuses on lowering key risk factors for diabetic complications, such as high blood glucose levels, high blood pressure, and dyslipidaemia. Still, diabetes remains the major cause of complications such as blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation worldwide. In this study, utilizing the UK Biobank data, combined with results from other diabetes studies, we aim to identify novel genetic, clinical, and environmental risk factors contributing to the development of diabetic complications and other diabetes related traits. Identification of novel genetic factors could improve our understanding of the biological processes leading to diabetic complications. This may suggest novel biomarkers for the identification of patients at high risk and new target molecules for medical treatment. Furthermore, we will analyse the data to identify novel biomarkers for diabetic complications, in order to allow earlier identification of the individuals at high risk to enable early initiation of treatment to prevent complications. Finally, we will investigate the clinical characteristics and imaging results to understand the full spectrum of the diabetes complications and other diabetes related traits.