Research aims to stop the rise of childhood diabetes
Thursday, 13 November 2014
The last 20 years has seen many advances in medicine - but it's also seen a doubling of the rate of type 1 diabetes in children in Australia and worldwide.
New nationwide research is underway, led from the University of ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ's and the Women's and Children's Hospital, to better understand the causes of type 1 diabetes, why it's on the increase, and how children can be spared its potentially life-threatening complications.
Speaking in the lead-up to World Diabetes Day (Friday 14 November), from the University's Robinson Research Institute and the Women's and Children's Hospital says our modern environment is the key to understanding the increase in type 1 diabetes.
"We believe our environment has both harmful and protective effects, which children are exposed to very early in life, perhaps even before they're born. Our research is finding out how this is happening, and what is happening at a molecular level to lead to type 1 diabetes," Professor Couper says.
Professor Couper has recently been awarded $2.5 million from the National Health and Medical Research Council and to establish a new Centre of Research Excellence to investigate the early development of type 1 diabetes. The centre's team combines the expertise of clinicians and scientists from South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland.
"The new Centre of Research Excellence will particularly focus on what happens during pregnancy and in early life that drives the process leading to type 1 diabetes," Professor Couper says.
"We are following 1400 children across Australia, who have a first-degree relative with type 1 diabetes, from pregnancy through early childhood; and we are also following older children who hav