Diabetes researchers secure funding to find the next breakthrough
Victorian diabetes researchers have secured 10 funded research projects representing over 50 percent of the 2024 Diabetes Australia Research Program (DARP) national grant round.
The funded projects are awarded to some of the brightest minds in diabetes research in Victoria and will aim to find new ways to prevent and treat diabetes and related complications.
Diabetes Victoria is proud to make a significant contribution to the national DARP funding pool over many years.
DARP supports and develops outstanding diabetes research in Australia by funding a range of grants across the full spectrum of diabetes research. The grants are available to non-profit organisations and recipients are selected through a merit-based peer review process.
Among the recipients for the 2024 grant round is Professor Glenn Wadley of Deakin University, who is leading the development of a vitamin C treatment to aid the healing of foot ulcers in people with diabetes. An exercise physiologist with 25 years of research experience, Dr Wadley has a growing international reputation. The general grant he has secured will fund a clinical trial to provide the first strong evidence as to whether vitamin C supplementation can improve foot ulcer healing and if it will help to prevent some of the 4,400 amputations annually in Australia.
Dr Helena Qin of Monash University has secured the Millennium Type 2 Diabetes Award to fund her research project, which has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of kidney scarring (renal fibrosis) in people with diabetes. Dr Qin’s expertise in drug design means this new treatment strategy could ultimately reduce kidney-related diabetes complications and deaths.
Dr Karen Alt of Monash University has secured a general grant for her project to find improved methods for detecting kidney scarring. Currently the only screening method is invasive biopsies – Dr Alt’s proposal will develop a non-invasive imaging method to identify and stage renal fibrosis in diabetes.
The 2024 DARP grant round received 193 applications, with 18 research projects selected for funding nation-wide. Read more about each project below.
Researcher |
Institute |
Project |
| Dr Steven James - Charles Campbell Coghlan OAM Emerging Researcher Award |
University of the Sunshine Coast | Provide new and updated data in six areas related to type 1 diabetes (T1D) across the lifespan, to reduce morbidity and mortality. Focuses on data collection, analysis, and advocacy to improve outcomes for people with T1D across various aspects of their healthcare. |
| Professor Anthony Russell - Millennium Type 1 Diabetes Award |
Monash University | Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening complication of diabetes. Over 7,000 people are hospitalized in Australia with DKA each year and they need large amounts of fluids via an IV to treat dehydration. The choice of fluid for treatment is unclear. The proposed study will compare Plasma-Lyte with saline in the treatment of DKA. |
| Professor Dr Chengxue (Helena) Qin - Millennium Type 2 Diabetes Award |
Monash University | Kidney scarring contributes to the development of complications in diabetes. A key protein, called FPR2, can help reduce kidney scarring and this protein is more abundant in the blood vessels of people with diabetes, making it a promising target for treatment. The project will test a new treatment strategy that has the potential to revolutionize how we treat kidney scarring in diabetes. |
| Professor Glenn Wadley | Deakin University | There is a strong association with low vitamin C levels and high levels of amputation in people with diabetic foot ulcers. The outcomes of this clinical trial will provide the first strong evidence as to whether vitamin C supplementation can improve diabetic foot ulcer healing and whether it will be helpful to prevent some of the 4,400 amputations annually in Australia. |
| Dr Miles De Blasio | Monash University | Exploring the use of specific medicines that focus on mitochondria to help treat heart problems caused by diabetes. Experiments will be conducted using heart cells grown in a lab to determine if mitochondria-targeted drugs can protect the heart from diabetes-related damage. |
| Associate Professor Jonathan Oakhill | St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research | An enzyme called AMPK can help muscles use sugar better. Current experimental drugs activate AMPK in other parts of the body, like the heart and pancreas, which can be unsafe. A team of experts will create and test a "smart" drug that only activates AMPK in muscles. If successful, it could open the door to developing a new, targeted therapy for type 2 diabetes. |
| Dr Karen Alt | Monash University | Monash University |
| Dr Phillip Kantharidis | Monash University | Research will focus on two molecules: Lipoxin A4, which is produced naturally in the body, and a synthetic molecule called AT-02-CT. Both molecules are known to reduce inflammation in the kidney. There’s the potential to discover better ways to treat and even reverse kidney damage related to diabetes. |
| Dr Patricia Rusu | Monash University | The goal of this project is to understand both the nutritional drivers and the brain pathways responsible for reduced food intake when eating a high protein diet. New information could inform potential new therapies, such as a designer diet or a drug to ultimately reduce appetite, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. |
| Dr Andrew Fleetwood | Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute | A condition called ‘clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential’, or CHIP, is linked to two major health problems in older people – diabetes and heart disease. Right now, there's no treatment for CHIP, and no treatment for people with diabetes who also have CHIP. Our research aims to find an inflammatory signal caused by CHIP to target it with therapy. |
| Sarah Turpin-Nolan | Monash University | When we manipulate ceramide molecules in the intestines, it helps reduce liver fat and improves how the body handles sugar. The intestines might be a new area to work on to treat metabolic diseases that affect the whole body. By focusing on ceramides in the intestines, we might be able to stop them from moving to the liver and muscles, which is where ceramide inhibitors are currently being developed as treatments for Type 2 Diabetes. |
| Karen Jones | The University of Adelaide | There's a ‘sensor’ near the liver called the ‘GLP-1 glucose sensor’ that helps the body detect when blood glucose is too high. In pigs that have trouble using insulin, the GLP-1 sensor in their portal vein (a big blood vessel near the liver) doesn't work as well. This research will discover if a similar problem with the GLP-1 sensor in the portal vein happens in people with type 2 diabetes and this could lead to more effective approaches for managing diabetes. |
| Tracy Levett-Jones | University of Technology Sydney | This project will help healthcare professionals provide more sensitive and empathetic care to people living with diabetes. This empathy is especially important when working in Indigenous communities, with people from different cultural backgrounds, and people living in remote areas of Australia. |
| Toby Coates | The University of Adelaide | Previous research has shown problems with certain immune cells called Tregulatory cells (Tregs) in people with Type 1 diabetes. Tregs control inflammation and stop the immune system from attacking the pancreas. This project will make Tregs that are trained to target the problem in the pancreas and provide preclinical data in support of using these specific Tregs as a therapy for preventing the early auto-immune responses in at-risk patients, and to reduce the need for insulin for people living with type 1. |
| Christina Bursill | South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute |
The research team found a drug called 'DRF' that can reduce clogs in the blood vessels of the heart. To make it more effective and with fewer side effects, the team created a type of 'switchable' DRF that only works where there's stress in the blood vessels (like clogs). This project will test the new drug on mice with diabetes to see if it can reduce clogs better than regular DRF and compare it to the standard treatment. |
| Mahesh Umapathysivam | The University of Adelaide | Exploring a new approach called ‘precision medicine,’ using individual factors, like genetics, to decide which medicine is best for people living with diabetes. By studying how genetic differences affect the response to a commonly used medicine, this research aims to find out if certain people with specific genetic markers will benefit more from that medication. |
| Leonia Heilbronn | The University of Adelaide | Immune cells rhythms may be slowed in people at risk of developing, and people with type 2 diabetes, which may weaken antigen responses to vaccination and make people more open to infections. The study will explore the role of meal timing in balancing immune cell responses and the relationship of the gut microbiome in this response. |
| Cong Xie | The University of Adelaide |
The process of controlling blood sugar after eating is mainly handled by the gut and a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). This hormone slows down how fast the stomach empties, reduces appetite, triggers the release of insulin, and keeps another hormone called glucagon in check. Natural substances in the gut, called bile acids (BAs), and a taste receptor called the bitter taste receptor (BTR), can boost the release of GLP-1 in a safe and cost-effective way. The goal is to turn this discovery into a new therapy to help people with type 2 diabetes to control their blood glucose levels better. |
