Professor Stephen O’Rahilly honoured with the Berthold Medal
Congratulations to Professor Stephen O’Rahilly of the Institute of Metabolic Science-Metabolic Research Laboratories who has been honoured with the prestigious Berthold Medal for his work in Endocrinology. The award was given at the 68th German Congress of Endocrinology on 20th March, following Professor O’Rahilly’s keynote Berthold lecture on “ Adventures in Endocrinology, Metabolism and Behaviour”.
The Berthold Medal is the highest award presented once a year by the German Society of Endocrinology (DGE). It is named after the German scientist Arnold Adolf Berthold (1803-1861), who is regarded as a pioneer of hormone research. Berthold’s research was the first to prove the existence of hormones. With the medal, the DGE honours international hormone researchers who continue Berthold’s legacy with their ground-breaking findings.
Professor O’Rahilly is Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine at Cambridge University Director of the Medical Research Council Metabolic Diseases Unit, Scientific Director of the Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and honorary consultant physician at Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-26-at-12.01.20.png536929Pollyhttps://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Cambridge_BRC_NIHR_logo.pngPolly2025-03-26 12:10:342025-04-01 16:35:55Cambridge Professor Stephen O’Rahilly honoured with the Berthold Medal for work in Endocrinology
Congratulations to Krishna Chatterjee, Director of the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility and Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Cambridge, who has been awarded the Gerald D. Aurbach Award for Outstanding Translational Research from the Endocrine Society.
Prof Chatterjee is one of 14 leading endocrinologists who were selected for the Society’s prestigious 2025 Laureate Awards, which recognise the highest achievements in endocrinology research and care, and which are regarded as the highest honours in the field.
Prof Chatterjee was awarded for his research on genetic and molecular endocrinology, exploring disorders including resistance to thyroid hormone and PPARgamma gene defects associated with lipodystrophic insulin resistance.
He said: “It is a privilege to accept this award which also represents the efforts of many clinical and scientist colleagues as well as patients taking part in our research, without whom our contributions to advancing knowledge and changing health outcomes in endocrine disorders would not have been possible.”
The Endocrine Society will present the awards to the winners at ENDO 2025, the Society’s annual meeting, being held next July 12-15 in San Francisco.
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Congratulations to Professor Nita Forouhi, NIHR Senior Investigator and co-theme lead for Nutrition, Obesity, Metabolism and Endocrinology, who has been elected as a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Forouhi’s work focuses on nutritional epidemiology and finding modifiable factors for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and related metabolic disorders.
The Academy of Medical Sciences is the independent, expert body representing the diversity of medical science in the UK. Its mission is to advance biomedical and health research and its translation into benefits for society. The Academy’s elected Fellows are the most influential scientists in the UK and worldwide, drawn from the NHS, academia, industry and the public service.
In total the academy has recognised 58 scientists for this year’s award. They were selected for their outstanding contribution and discoveries to biomedical and health sciences.
Professor Andrew Morris PMedSci, President of the Academy of Medical Sciences, said: “It is an honour to welcome these brilliant minds to our Fellowship. Our new Fellows lead pioneering work in biomedical research and are driving remarkable improvements in healthcare. We look forward to working with them, and learning from them, in our quest to foster an open and progressive research environment that improves the health of people everywhere through excellence in medical science.
“It is also welcoming to note that this year’s cohort is our most diverse yet, in terms of gender, ethnicity and geography. While this progress is encouraging, we recognise that there is still much work to be done to truly diversify our Fellowship. We remain committed to our EDI goals and will continue to take meaningful steps to ensure our Fellowship reflects the rich diversity of the society we serve.”
The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy on Wednesday 18 September 2024.
https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Nita_Forouhi_0220_4x5_web-240x300-1.jpg300240cbrcprodhttps://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Cambridge_BRC_NIHR_logo.pngcbrcprod2024-05-22 21:35:522025-01-10 18:02:06Researcher awarded prestigious Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship
A Cambridge-led study supported by the NIHR Cambridge BRC has shown why many women experience nausea and vomiting during pregnancy – and why some women, including the Duchess of Cambridge, become so sick they need to be admitted to hospital.
The culprit is a hormone produced by the fetus – a protein known as GDF15. But how sick the mother feels depends on a combination of how much of the hormone is produced by the fetus and how much exposure the mother had to this hormone before becoming pregnant.
The discovery, published today (13 December 2023) in Nature, points to a potential way to prevent pregnancy sickness by exposing mothers to GDF15 ahead of pregnancy to build up their resilience.
As many as seven in ten pregnancies are affected by nausea and vomiting. In some women – thought to be between one and three in 100 pregnancies – it can be severe, even threatening the life of the fetus and the mother and requiring intravenous fluid replacement to prevent dangerous levels of dehydration. So-called hyperemesis gravidarum is the commonest cause of admission to hospital of women in the first three months of pregnancy.
Although some therapies exist to treat pregnancy sickness and are at least partially effective, widespread ignorance of the disorder compounded by fear of using medication in pregnancy mean that many women with this condition are inadequately treated.
Until recently, the cause of pregnancy sickness was entirely unknown. Recently, some evidence, from biochemical and genetic studies has suggested that it might relate to the production by the placenta of the hormone GDF15, which acts on the mother’s brain to cause her to feel nauseous and vomit.
Now, an international study, involving scientists at the University of Cambridge and researchers in Scotland, the USA and Sri Lanka, has made a major advance in understanding the role of GDF15 in pregnancy sickness, including hyperemesis gravidarum.
The team studied data from women recruited to a number of studies, including at the Rosie Maternity Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Peterborough City Hospital, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust. They used a combination of approaches including human genetics, new ways of measuring hormones in pregnant women’s blood.
The researchers showed that the degree of nausea and vomiting that a woman experiences in pregnancy is directly related to both the amount of GDF15 made by the fetal part of placenta and sent into her bloodstream, and how sensitive she is to the nauseating effect of this hormone.
GDF15 is made at low levels in all tissues outside of pregnancy. How sensitive the mother is to the hormone during pregnancy is influenced by how much of it she was exposed to prior to pregnancy – women with normally low levels of GDF15 in blood have a higher risk of developing severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.
The team found that a rare genetic variant that puts women at a much greater risk of hyperemesis gravidarum was associated with lower levels of the hormone in the blood and tissues outside of pregnancy. Similarly, women with the inherited blood disorder beta thalassemia, which causes them to have naturally very high levels of GDF15 prior to pregnancy, experience little or no nausea or vomiting.
Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly, scientific director for NIHR Cambridge BRC and co-director of the Wellcome-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge, who led the collaboration, said: “Most women who become pregnant will experience nausea and sickness at some point, and while this is not pleasant, for some women it can be much worse – they’ll become so sick they require treatment and even hospitalisation.
“We now know why: the baby growing in the womb is producing a hormone at levels the mother is not used to. The more sensitive she is to this hormone, the sicker she will become. Knowing this gives us a clue as to how we might prevent this from happening. It also makes us more confident that preventing GDF15 from accessing its highly specific receptor in the mother’s brain will ultimately form the basis for an effective and safe way of treating this disorder.”
Previous studies of mice exposed to acute, high levels of GDF15 showed signs of loss of appetite, suggesting that they were experiencing nausea, but mice treated with a long-acting form of GDF15 did not show similar behaviour when exposed to acute levels of the hormone. The researchers believe that building up woman’s tolerance to the hormone prior to pregnancy could hold the key to preventing sickness.
Co-author Dr Marlena Fejzo from the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California whose team had previously identified the genetic association between GDF15 and hyperemesis gravidarum, has first-hand experience with the condition. “When I was pregnant, I became so ill that I could barely move without being sick. When I tried to find out why, I realized how little was known about my condition, despite pregnancy nausea being very common.
“Hopefully, now that we understand the cause of hyperemesis gravidarum, we’re a step closer to developing effective treatments to stop other mothers going through what I and many other women have experienced.”
The work involved collaboration between scientists at the University of Cambridge, University of Southern California, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow and Kelaniya University, Colombo, Sri Lanka. The principal UK funders of the study were the Medical Research Council and Wellcome, with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.
Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly added: “The support of the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre has been critical for the success of this study. The BRC has provided crucial support to our Peptidomics lab to help with our analysis and access to resources like the BRC supported Clinical Biochemistry Assay lab has been essential to deliver this significant breakthrough in understanding hyperemesis gravidarum.
“The BRC provides us with an opportunity to collaborate with expertise from University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals and other research themes like Professor Gordon Smith, whose samples from his POPS study was vital in our discovery. Without the necessary infrastructure and resources the BRC provides, this study would not have been made possible.”
Professor Miles Parkes, NIHR Cambridge BRC director said: “Its great to see this great breakthrough coming out of the O’Rahilly group. It represents a major step towards better treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum – the most severe and dangerous form of nausea and vomiting in pregnancy that often leads to mums spending long periods in hospital. This work has been supported at each step by the research infrastructure of the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. It emphasises the importance of this NHS-funded infrastructure in delivering major biomedical discoveries of potentially transformational significance with regards to improved health of patients in Cambridge and around the world”
“I was told: ‘Oh, for God’s sake, you’ve just got morning sickness. Pull yourself together.’”
Charlotte Howden considered herself to be in good health prior to getting pregnant in her early thirties. Her pregnancy was proceeding as normal until around week six or seven, when she began feel nauseous. Even then, she didn’t see any reason to be concerned.
“It’s just what we’ve been told to expect in early pregnancy,” she says.
Around a week after the onset of nausea, Charlotte’s condition got worse. Much worse. She found herself being sick as often as 30 times a day, unable to keep food down.
“Every time I tried to eat something, which is obviously what I wanted to do, not only because I felt hungry, but because I was pregnant, that would then instantly make me sick.”
Worse still, she could not keep any fluids down – not even water. Her condition – which she now knows to be hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) – became so bad that even to swallow saliva would make her sick. And a cruel irony is that a common symptom of HG is excessive saliva production.
When Charlotte finally accepted that there was something wrong, that this was not normal pregnancy sickness, she turned to her GP.
“They just said ‘There’s nothing we can do for you. Have you tried ginger? Try and limit your daily activities to best get through this. Try eating a little and often.’”
Returning to the GP, she was offered a urine test for levels of ketones, a chemical produced by the liver (high levels can indicate a serious problem) – the only way, it seemed, that she would be diagnosed with dehydration and referred for treatment. And given that she had not been taking any fluids, this made taking the test incredibly difficult.
“For some reason, it’s only women with HG who are asked to give a sample, when other conditions it is obvious from the way someone looks,” she says.
Charlotte was not referred, but instead her GP prescribed her the first line medication for HG. This did little to help.
“It just makes you comatose, so you sleep the whole day. But I had a full time job, I had responsibilities, financial and otherwise. Sleeping 20 hours a day is not an effective way to live!”
A second ketone test showed that something was obviously wrong. She was told to get to the hospital immediately.
Charlotte was admitted to the early pregnancy ward, which she describes as a traumatic experience.
“You’re with women who are losing their pregnancies, and you’re very much still pregnant. There’s a kind of dismissive behaviour around you of, ‘Oh, for God’s sake, you’ve just got morning sickness. That woman over there has just had a miscarriage. Pull yourself together.’”
After being rehydrated, she was discharged, only to become very sick again and be re-admitted. This cycle repeated, taking its toll.
“Mentally you end up thinking to yourself there is no point in going back to hospital. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again. You feel completely broken.”
Eventually, she had had enough.
“When I went in again for my third time, I begged [the consultant] to help me because I was very close to making the decision to terminate. She said ‘Look, just give me 24 hours.’”
This time, the consultant gave her medication that finally made her “feel incredible” for 12 hours. Discharged, she would need to get a repeat prescription from her GP – something they were unwilling to do.
“There was a complete disconnect between my GP and the consultant,” she says. Fortunately, Charlotte, rehydrated and re-energised, was ready to fight. She managed to get through to the consultant, who was astounded to hear she was being refused the medication.
“She got on the phone to the GP and I won’t repeat the language she used, but she was very stern, quite rightly, because what’s the point of treating someone in hospital and then just sending them home to come back in a couple of days’ time?”
It took Charlotte until around week 16 of her pregnancy before she was finally on the right treatment to overcome her sickness. She continued taking the medication until around week 37 as she was “petrified to stop taking it”.
In 2016, Charlotte gave birth to a healthy son, Henry. She is determined that no woman should have to go through what she did. In 2020, she presented the world’s first documentary on HG, Sick – The Battle Against HG.
Charlotte became involved with the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support, joining an army of around 600 volunteers who offer peer support and man telephone helplines. She is now its Chief Executive and uses her position to raise awareness of the condition among women and healthcare professionals, including pushing for HG to be taught on all midwifery courses.
Charlotte is hopeful that this new study will lead to a way of treating – and even preventing – HG. She is grateful to Professor O’Rahilly and Dr Fejzo for their work – and in particularly, for taking the condition seriously.
“When you are suffering from a condition and no one can tell you why, you start to think, oh, is it me? Is it something I’ve done?” she says. “I’m so grateful for the dedication of the researchers, because this isn’t a condition that really ever made the headlines until the now Princess of Wales suffered with it. It wasn’t an area of research that people were really interested in. It was just morning sickness – why should we care?”
https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pregnant-193850_1920.jpg12801920Jesshttps://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Cambridge_BRC_NIHR_logo.pngJess2023-12-13 17:40:262024-10-28 10:51:57Cambridge-led study discovers cause of pregnancy sickness – and potential treatment
The award honours an internationally recognized clinical investigator who has contributed significantly to understanding the pathogenesis and therapy of endocrine and metabolic diseases. It is one of only a handful of Laureate Awards made by the society each year, to celebrate the achievements of the world’s top endocrinologists.
Professor Farooqi researches the fundamental mechanisms that control human energy homeostasis. She discovered the first genes whose disruption causes severe obesity and established that the principal driver of obesity is a failure of the central control of appetite. She also is a keen advocate to raise more awareness around weight stigma and obesity as a disease.
I am delighted and honoured to receive this prestigious award which recognises the dedication and contributions of past and present team members. I would particularly like to thank the many patients and volunteers who have contributed to our clinical research over the years, allowing us to find new ways to diagnose and treat people with severe obesity.
Professor Farooqi
The Endocrine Society is a global community of physicians and scientists, dedicated to accelerating scientific breakthroughs and improving patient health and well-being. Their main annual meeting, now called ENDO, has been held each year since 1916, except for 1943 and 1945 during World War II. Professor Farooqi will be presented with her award at ENDO 2024 in June next year.
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A new study led by scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh has found the protection offered by COVID-19 vaccination declines more rapidly in people with severe obesity than in those with normal weight. It suggests that people with obesity are likely to need more frequent booster doses to maintain their immunity.
Clinical trials have shown that COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at reducing symptoms, hospitalisation and deaths caused by the virus, including for people with obesity. Previous studies have suggested that antibody levels may be lower in vaccinated people who have obesity and that they may remain at higher risk of severe disease than vaccinated people with normal weight. The reasons for this have, however, remained unclear.
The study supported by NIHR’s Cambridge BRC, BioResource and Cambridge CRF, shows that the ability of antibodies to neutralise the virus declines faster in vaccinated people who have obesity. The findings have important implications for vaccine prioritisation policies around the world.
During the pandemic, people with obesity were more likely to be hospitalised, require ventilators and to die from COVID-19. In this study, the researchers set out to investigate how far two of the most extensively used vaccines protect people with obesity compared to those with a normal weight, over time.
A team from the University of Edinburgh, led by Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh, looked at real-time data tracking the health of 3.5 million people in the Scottish population as part of the EAVE II study. They looked at hospitalisation and mortality from COVID-19 in adults who received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine (either Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA or AstraZeneca ChAdOx1).
They found that people with severe obesity (a BMI greater than 40 kg/m2) had a 76% higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, compared to those with a normal BMI. A modest increase in risk was also seen in people with obesity (30-39.9kg/m2), which affects a quarter of the UK population, and those who were underweight. ‘Break-through infections’ after the second vaccine dose also led to hospitalisation and death sooner (from 10 weeks) among people with severe obesity, and among people with obesity (after 15 weeks), than among individuals with normal weight (after 20 weeks).
Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh said: “Our findings demonstrate that protection gained through COVID-19 vaccination drops off faster for people with severe obesity than those with a normal body mass index. Using large-scale data assets such as the EAVE II Platform in Scotland have enabled us to generate important and timely insights that enable improvements to the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine schedules in a post-pandemic UK.”
The University of Cambridge team – jointly led by Dr James Thaventhiran, from the MRC Toxicology Unit and Professor Sadaf Farooqi from the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science and NIHR Cambridge BRC theme lead for Nutrition, Obesity, Metabolism and Endocrinology – studied people with severe obesity attending Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, and compared the number and function of immune cells in their blood to those of people of normal weight.
They studied people six months after their second vaccine dose and then looked at the response to a third “booster” vaccine dose over time. The Cambridge researchers found that six months after a second vaccine dose, people with severe obesity had similar levels of antibodies to the COVID-19 virus as those with a normal weight.
But the ability of those antibodies to work efficiently to fight against the virus (known as ‘neutralisation capacity’) was reduced in people with obesity. 55% of individuals with severe obesity were found to have unquantifiable or undetectable ‘neutralising capacity’ compared to 12% of people with normal BMI.
“This study further emphasises that obesity alters the vaccine response and also impacts on the risk of infection,” said Dr Agatha van der Klaauw from the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science and first author of the paper. “We urgently need to understand how to restore immune function and minimise these health risks.”
The researchers found that antibodies produced by people with severe obesity were less effective at neutralising the SARS-CoV-2 virus, potentially because the antibodies were not able to bind to the virus with the same strength.
When given a third (booster) dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the ability of the antibodies to neutralise the virus was restored in both the normal weight and severely obese groups. But the researchers found that immunity again declined more rapidly in people with severe obesity, putting them at greater risk of infection with time.
Dr James Thaventhiran, a Group Leader from the MRC Toxicology Unit in Cambridge and co-lead author of the SCORPIO study said: “It is promising to see that booster vaccines restore the effectiveness of antibodies for people with severe obesity, but it is concerning that their levels decrease more quickly, after just 15 weeks. This shows that the vaccines work as well in people with obesity, but the protection doesn’t last as long.”
Professor Sadaf Farooqi from the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science and co-lead author of the SCORPIO study said: “More frequent booster doses are likely to be needed to maintain protection against COVID-19 in people with obesity. Because of the high prevalence of obesity across the globe, this poses a major challenge for health services”.
Reference
A.A. van der Klaauw et al., ‘Accelerated waning of the humoral response to COVID-19 vaccines in obesity’, Nature Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02343-2
Adapted from University of Cambridge press release
https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/vaccination-g47a59b440_1920.jpg12801920Jesshttps://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Cambridge_BRC_NIHR_logo.pngJess2023-05-12 14:43:182024-10-28 10:52:26Obesity accelerates loss of COVID-19 vaccination immunity, study finds
The artificial pancreas for type 1 diabetes – which was developed in Cambridge and supported in trials by the NIHR Cambridge BRC and NIHR Cambridge CRF – could soon be approved for use in the NHS.
The technology is now being recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a new way of controlling diabetes and if approved, could be a life-changing tool to manage the disease.
Currently, people with type 1 diabetes rely on multiple, daily finger-prick blood tests and insulin injections to manage their blood sugar, because their pancreas no longer produces insulin.
This new technology combines an insulin pump, continuous glucose monitor and an algorithm to calculate and deliver the right amount of insulin needed. NICE has recommended that the device is offered to patients whose diabetes is difficult to control with other technologies and who are at increased risk of long-term complications – around 105,000 people in England and Wales.
Trialling a new technology
The NIHR Cambridge BRC and CRF have supported the artificial pancreas research from the earliest phases of research more than ten years ago. The device was trialled at the CRF in multiple stages with hundreds of patients, including pregnant women and children.
Research nurses collected blood samples and glucose readings and even conducted overnight studies to understand how effective the device would be to patients whilst they slept. Studies found the artificial pancreas was beneficial in managing people’s diabetes.
Professor Roman Hovorka, who led the team that developed the artificial pancreas, said: “NICE’s recommendations are very welcome and it comes after years of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) at Cambridge.
“These provided the necessary clinical and economic evidence that showed the device has clear health benefits and potential cost savings.
“This technology can literally change lives. If blood glucose levels are too low or too high it can be very damaging and even life-threatening.
“Our trials showed that using the device improved patients’ quality of life and reduced the risk of long-term health complications.”
The closed-loop algorithm developed in Cambridge is now available through CamDiab in 15 countries worldwide, including Australia, France, Italy and Poland.
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Cambridge scientists have successfully trialled an artificial pancreas for use by patients living with type 2 diabetes. The device – powered by an algorithm developed at the University of Cambridge – doubled the amount of time patients were in the target range for glucose and halved the time spent experiencing high glucose levels.
Around 415 million people worldwide are estimated to be living with type 2 diabetes, which costs around $760 billion in annual global health expenditure. According to Diabetes UK, in the UK alone, more than 4.9million people have diabetes, of whom 90% have type 2 diabetes, and this is estimated to cost the NHS £10bn per year.
Type 2 diabetes causes levels of glucose – blood sugar – to become too high. Ordinarily, blood sugar levels are controlled by the release of insulin, but in type 2 diabetes insulin production is disrupted. Over time, this can cause serious problems including eye, kidney and nerve damage and heart disease.
The disease is usually managed through a combination of lifestyle changes – improved diet and more exercise, for example – and medication, with the aim of keeping glucose levels low.
Researchers from the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge and supported by the NIHR Cambridge BRC, have developed an artificial pancreas that can help maintain healthy glucose levels. The device combines an off-the-shelf glucose monitor and insulin pump with an app developed by the team, known as CamAPS HX. This app is run by an algorithm that predicts how much insulin is required to maintain glucose levels in the target range.
The researchers have previously shown that an artificial pancreas run by a similar algorithm is effective for patients living with type 1 diabetes, from adults through to very young children. They have also successfully trialled the device in patients with type 2 diabetes who require kidney dialysis.
Today, in Nature Medicine, the team report the first trial of the device in a wider population living with type 2 diabetes (not requiring kidney dialysis). Unlike the artificial pancreas used for type 1 diabetes, this new version is a fully closed loop system – whereas patients with type 1 diabetes need to tell their artificial pancreas that they are about to eat to allow adjustment of insulin, for example, with this version they can leave the device to function entirely automatically.
The researchers recruited 26 patients from the Wolfson Diabetes and Endocrine Clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a local group of GP surgeries. Patients were randomly allocated to one of two groups – the first group would trial the artificial pancreas for eight weeks and then switch to the standard therapy of multiple daily insulin injections; the second group would take this control therapy first and then switch to the artificial pancreas after eight weeks.
The team used several measures to assess how effectively the artificial pancreas worked. The first was the proportion of time that patients spent with their glucose levels within a target range of between 3.9 and 10.0mmol/L. On average, patients using the artificial pancreas spent two-thirds (66%) of their time within the target range – double that while on the control (32%).
A second measure was the proportion of time spent with glucose levels above 10.0mmol/L. Over time, high glucose levels raise the risk of potentially serious complications. Patients taking the control therapy spent two-thirds (67%) of their time with high glucose levels – this was halved to 33% when using the artificial pancreas.
Average glucose levels fell – from 12.6mmol/L when taking the control therapy to 9.2mmol/L while using the artificial pancreas.
The app also reduced levels of a molecule known as glycated haemoglobin, or HbA1c. Glycated haemoglobin develops when haemoglobin, a protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body, joins with glucose in the blood, becoming ‘glycated’. By measuring HbA1c, clinicians are able to get an overall picture of what a person’s average blood sugar levels have been over a period of weeks or months. For people with diabetes, the higher the HbA1c, the greater the risk of developing diabetes-related complications. After the control therapy, average HbA1c levels were 8.7%, while after using the artificial pancreas they were 7.3%.
No patients experienced dangerously-low blood sugar levels (hypoglycaemia) during the study. One patient was admitted to hospital while using the artificial pancreas, due to an abscess at the site of the pump cannula.
Dr Charlotte Boughton from the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge, pictured right, who co-led the study, said: “Many people with type 2 diabetes struggle to manage their blood sugar levels using the currently available treatments, such as insulin injections. The artificial pancreas can provide a safe and effective approach to help them, and the technology is simple to use and can be implemented safely at home.”
Dr Aideen Daly, also from the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, said: “One of the barriers to widespread use of insulin therapy has been concern over the risk of severe ‘hypos’ – dangerously low blood sugar levels. But we found that no patients on our trial experienced these and patients spent very little time with blood sugar levels lower than the target levels.”
Feedback from participants suggested that participants were happy to have their glucose levels controlled automatically by the system, and nine out of ten (89%) reported spending less time managing their diabetes overall. Users highlighted the elimination of the need for injections or fingerprick testing, and increased confidence in managing blood glucose as key benefits. Downsides included increased anxiety about the risk of hypoglycaemia, which the researchers say may reflect increased awareness and monitoring of glucose levels, and practical annoyances with wearing of devices.
The team now plan to carry out a much larger multicentre study to build on their findings and have submitted the device for regulatory approval with a view to making it commercially available for outpatients with type 2 diabetes.
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Congratulations to Professor Krishna Chatterjee, consultant endocrinologist at Cambridge University Hospitals and director of NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility who has been awarded a CBE in the King’s New Year Honours for his ground-breaking work on endocrine disorders.
Professor Chatterjee is also a professor of endocrinology at the University of Cambridge and led the COVBOOST vaccine trial locally during the pandemic. His research group focuses on genetic and molecular endocrinology, exploring disorders including resistance to thyroid hormone (RTH) and PPARgamma gene defects associated with lipodystrophic insulin resistance. He was awarded a CBE for his services to people with endocrine disorders.
He said: “I am delighted that our work has been recognised in this way. This also represents the efforts of many clinical and scientist colleagues in the University, CUH and our NIHR Clinical Research Facility, with whom I have worked over many years.
“Together with the patients participating in our research, we strive to continue advancing knowledge and health outcomes in endocrine disorders.”
https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Krish-Chatterjee.jpg766769Jesshttps://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Cambridge_BRC_NIHR_logo.pngJess2023-01-05 11:26:092024-10-28 10:53:16Professor Krishna Chatterjee awarded a CBE
Congratulations to our NIHR Cambridge BRC researchers who have been elected as Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
In 2022, 60 Fellows have been elected for their contributions to biomedical and health science, the highest number elected into the academy in a single year.
The Academy of Medical Sciences aims to advance biomedical and health research and its translation into benefits to society. Fellows are selected from laboratory science, clinical academic medicine, veterinary science, dentistry, medical and nursing care, and other professions allied to medical science including ethics, social science and law.
Professor Miles Parkes, director of the NIHR Cambridge BRC and one of our newly elected Fellows said: “I feel very honoured to have been elected as a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and am very grateful both to the colleagues who nominated and supported my application and the many patients and collaborators across who have played a critical role in the success of our IBD research.”
Professor Fiona Gilbert, Imaging Lead at NIHR Cambridge BRC and newly awarded Fellow said: “Our work here on the Cambridge biomedical campus brings together clinical teams, research and patients, enabling pioneering working in so many fields of medicine and life science.”
Cambridge researchers elected as Fellows
Professor Miles Parkes, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Director, Addenbrooke’s Hospital NIHR Cambridge BRC director
Professor Fiona Gilbert, Head of the Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge and NIHR Cambridge BRC Imaging Theme Lead
Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, NIHR Cambridge BRC researcher
Professor David Savage, Professor of Molecular Metabolism, University of Cambridge NIHR Cambridge BRC researcher
Professor Rodrigo Floto, Professor of Respiratory Biology, University of Cambridge
Dr John Marioni, Senior Group Leader, University of Cambridge
Professor Susan Ozanne, Professor of Developmental Endocrinology, University of Cambridge
Professor Anna Philpott, Head of the School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge
https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Miles-Parkes-scaled-1.jpg22132560Jesshttps://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Cambridge_BRC_NIHR_logo.pngJess2022-05-11 13:38:102024-10-28 10:53:32Cambridge researchers awarded Fellow status
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