Diabetes: the quest for new treatments

Diabetes is one of our major health scourges. The disease is increasing in prevalence worldwide and an estimated 640 million people will be affected by 2040. In Sweden, more than half a million people have diabetes. Most of them suffer from type 2 diabetes. However, among Swedish children type 1 diabetes is the most common chronic disease – a disease for which there is currently no cure. In the quest for a solution, researchers are attempting to tackle the underlying causes of the disease at cell level.

Diabetes and its consequences have an enormous impact on the patient’s quality of life, being associated with serious and chronic complications in the heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves. The disease is also costly for society. In Sweden, diabetes accounts for more than 10 per cent of healthcare costs. For as yet undiscovered reasons, the incidence of type 1 diabetes has doubled in the last 30 years and it continues to increase by about five per cent per year. Despite the great demand for more effective treatments and the great efforts made, research has so far failed to identify satisfactory methods.

Uppsala is home to unique multi-disciplinary expertise in diabetes research, from cell level to society level and from laboratory to clinic. At Uppsala Diabetes Centre, leading diabetes researchers have come together, bringing completely new perspectives to bear on the vital need to prevent, treat and ultimately, perhaps, even cure diabetes.

The strategy is to study targeted pharmaceutical treatment in the pancreas – for example, the possibility of organ-specific transport of drugs, including cell therapies, to the insulin-producing tissue. The plan is to establish an integrated research environment that incorporates two of the University’s strongest areas – diabetes research and pharmaceutical development. Previous attempts to develop new methods of treatment for diabetes have suffered from a narrowness of approach. A new, broader research environment will facilitate direct knowledge transfer from basic laboratory research via pharmaceutical development to clinical care. This will open up previously untested opportunities to develop new strategies and approaches for more effective treatments.