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Our Successes
Diabetes Discoveries in Dundee
Dundee scientists have made major contributions to the understanding of diabetes
- Dundee scientists have worked out the biochemical pathway by which insulin controls the metabolism of glucose
- This research has identified several new proteins that are targets for the development of new drugs to treat diabetes
- Professor Grahame Hardie at Dundee discovered the enzyme (acronym AMPK) that is targeted by Glucophage, the drug that is used most commonly to treat Type II diabetes
- Over the past five years Dundee scientists have helped pharmaceutical companies to develop new 'lead' compounds for the treatment of diabetes that target another enzyme (acronym GSK3) discovered at Dundee. These compounds normalise the level of blood glucose in animal models of diabetes, and are undergoing further evaluation
Meet the dedicated team of professors and researchers on our About Us page.
Advantages of the development of CIR
- The University has recently concluded one of the largest ever research collaborations between the pharmaceutical industry and a UK Research Institution. This five year £15 million plus collaboration with six of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co Inc, Merck KGaA and Pfizer) will allow Dundee to greatly expand its programmes aimed at facilitating the development of drugs to treat diabetes and other global diseases. The CIR facility will provide additional space to accommodate a further 60 scientists to run this programme.
- A key area that the University expects to strengthen is research to identify and characterise the key genes that predispose people to diabetes. Recruitment in this area is critical to exploit the unique and complete collection of the DNA of all the 12,000 diabetics in Tayside that has been compiled by Professor Andrew Morris and his outstanding team of clinical diabeticians at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. The development of translational research between clinical research and life sciences basic research is crucial to the development of more effective treatments and Dundee is one of the pioneering institutions in this area.
About the University of Dundee
- Named "Scottish University of the Year 2004/05" by The Sunday Times Good University Guide
- Voted "Top for Teaching Quality in the UK" by The Times
- Voted the best UK scientific workplace by a poll of thousands of researchers worldwide. (Survey conducted by The Scientist magazine, October 2003)
- The School of Life Sciences is one of Europe's leading biomedical research centres, achieving the highest (5-star) rating in the 2001 UK Research Assessment Exercise
- The University of Dundee's Medical School is ranked by an independent Oxford University study as providing the best training for doctors in the UK
- University of Dundee scientists have been the 'most quoted' university scientists by their peers in Europe for the past 10 years in the fields of biology and biochemistry
- University of Dundee scientists are currently acknowledged world leaders in cell-signalling research that is vital to understanding diabetes, cancer and other global diseases
- The Scottish Government has designated Dundee "Scotland's Capital of Life Sciences"
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