Diabetes in Focus

We are witnessing a global epidemic of diabetes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that by 2016 the number of people with diabetes will double from current numbers to 240 million worldwide. Currently the direct cost of healthcare provision to people with diabetes is estimated at over $286 billion and the cost in terms of human suffering is enormous.

In the Republic of Ireland alone it is estimated that up to 14% of the population over 40 years of age has diabetes and that 10% of our healthcare budget is spent treating diabetes and its complications. Every year over 2,000 people in Ireland die from diabetes-related diseases.

Diabetes Mellitus & Related Diseases

Diabetes (Diabetes mellitus) is currently an incurable disease in which the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar (glucose) goes awry. Normally blood glucose levels are carefully regulated by production of the hormone insulin from the pancreas. In Type 1 diabetes destruction of the beta cells of the pancreas results in the impaired ability of the body to produce insulin. Type 1 diabetes is typically treated with injectable replacement insulin in an effort to regulate blood sugar. In Type 2 diabetes the body’s ability to respond to the insulin produced by the pancreas is severely impaired so that blood glucose levels are not appropriately regulated. Treatment of Type 2 diabetes is complex and depends on oral glucose-lowering agents. Whereas Type 2 diabetes was previously associated with aging there is now an alarming increase in the number of younger patients reflecting increases in childhood obesity.

Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes result in serious complications which reflect the consequences of dysregulated blood glucose over time. These complications include eye disease (diabetic retinopathy) which results in blindness, kidney disease (diabetic nephropathy) which leads to kidney failure, nerve damage (diabetic neuropathy) which accounts for between 50-75% of non-trauma amputations, heart disease and strokes.

All types of people are at risk from diabetes. However, there are several risk factors associated with the condition including: a family history of diabetes; obesity; older age; limited physical exercise; women who had the condition during pregnancy (gestational diabetes). Additionally, ethnicity and gender play a role in susceptibility to diabetes and to its complications.

UCD Diabetes Research Centre

UCD Diabetes Research Centre consolidates multi-disciplinary and collaborative expertise to accelerate progress towards discoveries that will improve the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes and associated diseases. The Centre brings together experts in clinical and translational medicine, genetic epidemiology, public health and molecular cell biology in the UCD Conway Institute and several UCD Schools together with UCD’s affiliated teaching hospitals and with both national and international collaborators in academia, hospitals and industry.

This multidisciplinary approach addresses the full spectrum of issues concerning Diabetes Research from molecular genetics to the physical, psychological and social dimensions of the disease. Ongoing research programmes include: