Diabetes SA Research Grants Program
On behalf of our members and donors who support diabetes research through their generous donations, Diabetes SA is proud to announce the successful recipients of the 2024 Diabetes SA Research Grants Program.
Now in its fourth round, the Diabetes SA Research Grants Program offered researchers the opportunity to apply for funding to support innovative and creative diabetes research projects that sought to challenge and shift current paradigms and/or have a major impact on health research into diabetes. Funding supported diabetes research conducted by researchers of any career stage from discovery to implementation in the key focus areas of prevention, detection and management of diabetes.
Since 2018, Diabetes SA has provided $770,750 to eleven South Australian researchers through the Diabetes SA Research Grants Program.
In 2024 Diabetes SA increased its commitment to funding outstanding research in Australia with the introduction of a new $100,000 research grant (two-year award) specifically for research into type 1 diabetes, made possible through the generosity of the late Ms Sieglinde Hannelore Darsow or “Hanni” as she is fondly remembered.
In addition, Diabetes SA offered:
- $100,000 Research Grant – (two-year award) 1 grant
- $50,000 Research Grant – (one -year award) 2 grants
The four successful recipients of the 2024 Diabetes SA Research Grants are:
$100,000 Sieglinde Hannelore Darsow – Type 1 Award (2-year award)
‘When is the critical window to intervene in early life to reduce the impact of overweight on the risk of type 1 diabetes?’
Dr Thomson has a background in nutrition and exercise physiology and an interest in the health benefits of physical activity and nutrition. Her program of research investigates the potential determinants of type 1 diabetes during preconception, pregnancy and early life. This includes investigating the impact of preconception lifestyle behaviours, maternal weight and gestational weight gain, maternal diet, physical activity levels, mental health and lifestyle during pregnancy, paternal weight and infant growth, diet and lifestyle.
This research aims to find when the best time is to intervene to optimise weight and nutrition in early life (in the parents before or during pregnancy or in the young child), to reduce a child’s risk of developing type 1 diabetes. We will use information and samples from the Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA) pregnancy-birth study to learn how a parent’s weight and child’s weight gain and growth can affect the child’s risk of developing the early stages of type 1 diabetes. We will also investigate how what foods the mother and child eat (diet) and their communities of bacteria (microbiome) living in their gut are involved. This includes studying the diet and microbiome of mothers during pregnancy, the diets of babies in their first two years of life, and how a mother’s diet and gut bacteria affect her baby’s gut bacteria. We think that one way weight and nutrition can affect the risk of type 1 diabetes is that the mother’s diet influences their gut microbiome during pregnancy and subsequently the infant’s microbiome after birth. This provides an opportunity to possibly prevent type 1 diabetes by making changes to what you eat or taking supplements that boost the helpful bacteria in your gut, like prebiotics, probiotics or postbiotics.
Using information and samples from the Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA) study we will investigate how a parent’s weight and child’s weight gain and growth can affect the child’s risk of developing the early stages of type 1 diabetes. We will also investigate how what foods the mother and child eat (diet) and their communities of bacteria (microbiome) living in their gut are involved.
$100,000 Research Grant – (2-year Award)
‘Improving health outcomes for patients with diabetes by novel bacterial identification and treatment to prevent continuing foot infections.’
Dr Kidd leads a research group in Microbiology at the University of Adelaide. He is also the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Ecology (ACARE).
His research group has a specific focus on the fundamental scientific understanding of the bacteria in patients with diabetes that cause chronic foot infections and how particular bacterial cells respond to the physical and chemical assaults directed at them from the human body. These bacteria, during disease, adapt and change to the specific conditions of human tissue such as the skin compared to deeper tissues, such as the bone. A major and global issue in public health is the increasing prevalence of the failure of antibiotic treatment. Dr Kidd’s research is part of the critical advances in knowledge to understand how bacteria can alter the way they grow in response to antibiotics which enable them to avoid the killing action of antibiotics. These unusual cells are the cause of persisting or chronic infections.
Dr Kidd’s research group employs various novel microbiological techniques together with cutting edge genetic tools to determine the systems that bacteria use to live for prolonged time in human tissues and during chronic infections. What is particularly interesting is that bacteria over a long period of time, generate a diversity of cell types – it is these various types that allow bacterial survival against antimicrobial processes. The ultimate aim of the research is to create new methods for diagnosis and treatment that targets all the infecting, bacterial cell types.
$50,000 Research Grant (1-year Award)
‘A potential new player in blood glucose control and diabetic nephropathy.’
Dr Jantina Manning is a research fellow and group leader at the University of South Australia (UniSA), focused on kidney health and diabetes. Recent research is exploring new mechanisms for the early detection and understanding of diabetic nephropathy. In addition to her renowned research, Dr Manning is highly active in teaching and supervision, as well as dissemination of new scientific findings to the public and consumers.Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease where resistance to the hormone insulin causes high blood glucose levels. This can lead to long-term complications, with up to 40% of diabetic patients developing kidney disease.
Recently, our research has discovered a new gene (called NEDD4L) that has significantly lower levels in the kidneys of diabetic patients and mice. Intriguingly, when we further reduce this gene from the kidneys of diabetic mice, blood glucose levels (greatly elevated in diabetes) are corrected, and drinking and urination amounts also return to normal healthy levels. Importantly, this gene has also been associated with some functions of current anti-diabetic drugs. Together, this suggests that NEDD4L might play a critical role in this disease. Our project has two aims:
- Investigate whether NEDD4L levels in human urine samples can predict diabetes and associated kidney disease progression or severity. This will reveal if testing NEDD4L levels in urine from patients may serve as an early marker of disease.
- Determine if anti-diabetic drugs exert their action through NEDD4L in the kidney. This will reveal new mechanisms of how these drugs work, and whether varied levels of the NEDD4L gene in patients may affect treatment responses.
The incidence of diabetes and associated kidney disease is on a sharp upward trajectory, however a reduction in kidney function is usually not detectable until late stages of disease. Results from this study will provide critical information for early detection and prediction of which patients may respond well to different treatments.
Our research has discovered a new gene (NEDD4L) implicated in diabetes and diabetic kidney disease. In this study we aim to investigate whether levels of NEDD4L in patient urine samples reflects disease progression, and if current anti-diabetic drugs exert their action through this gene. Ultimately, this will reveal potential avenues to explore for earlier detection and more effective treatment of diabetes.
$50,000 Research Grant (1-year Award)
‘Molecular imaging for kidney fibrosis for monitoring diabetes induced disease progression.’
Dr Karen Alt leads the NanoTheranostics Group at Monash University. The central objective of her research is to develop imaging techniques to better understand the underlying mechanisms of different disease progression and the impact of therapy. Dr. Alt’s career has primarily centered on molecular imaging, the development of novel tracers, and their testing in various animal models, including those for cancer and cardiovascular disease. More recently, his work has also encompassed diabetes and its complications, such as fibrosis in the kidney and heart.
Kidney fibrosis is a common complication of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, resulting in altered organ structure and function. It is a significant pathological feature, often triggered by kidney injury due to diabetes. Current imaging methods for diagnosing and monitoring kidney fibrosis are limited by their indirect and invasive nature. Thus, there is an urgent need for precise and non-invasive diagnostic techniques that also allow for therapeutic monitoring.
We have developed a novel method to detect diabetes induced kidney fibrosis as a diagnostic tool and as a monitoring approach to track the anti-fibrotic effect of established and novel treatments.Kidney fibrosis is a common complication in diabetes, resulting in altered organ structure and function. It is a significant pathological feature, often triggered by kidney injury due to diabetes. Current imaging methods for diagnosing and monitoring kidney fibrosis are limited by their indirect and invasive nature.
We have developed a novel method to detect diabetes induced kidney fibrosis as a diagnostic tool and as a monitoring approach to track the anti-fibrotic effect of established and novel treatments.
The alumni of past and present recipients of the Diabetes SA Research Grants Program include Dr Christina Bursill, Professor Damien Keating, Professor Paul Ward, Dr Chinmay Marathe, Associate Professor Richard Young, Dr Rebecca Thomson, Dr David Jesudason, Dr Megan Penno, Dr Cher-Rin Chong, Dr Lisa Nicholas, Dr Stephen Kidd, Dr Jantina Manning and Dr Karen Alt.
For more than 70 years Diabetes SA has been providing services to people living with and at risk of diabetes and almost since our inception we have been supporting diabetes research.
We are proud to fund vital research into diabetes and wish the successful recipients every success in their research projects and look forward to receiving regular updates.
