The programme will run Tuesday August 16 at 20.02 hours, repeated on Sunday August 21 at 17.02. It will then be available on iPlayer.

Exeter diabetes team to feature on national radio

Ground-breaking diabetes research and treatment in Exeter will feature in a BBC documentary to air on Radio 4 this week. 

Personalised Medicine: Dose by Design will feature the work of the monogenic diabetes team which spans the University of Exeter Medical School and the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. The partnership unites world-leading Medical School researchers with expert clinicians, to ensure people with diabetes across the world get the best treatment available.

The multi award-winning team, led by professors Andrew Hattersley, Sian Ellard and Maggie Shepherd, made a major breakthrough a decade ago, when they discovered that some forms of neonatal diabetes were caused by abnormalities in a channel in the pancreas, meaning they can be treated more effectively with a tablet than with regular insulin injections.

To date, more than 1,000 people have been successfully treated across the world, with the Exeter lab offering free testing to people from around the world. The team’s discovery has changed international guidelines, so that all children with neonatal diabetes should now have a genetic test, to see if they too can switch to tablets.

The Radio 4 programme will feature this personalised approach, and will focus on both the research that is revolutionising diabetes and the treatments that are changing patients’ lives for the better. The programme will feature interviews with researchers, clinicians and patients.

Professor Sian Ellard, who leads the genetic testing laboratory at the University of Exeter Medical School, was interviewed for the programme, said: “Exeter is at the forefront of discovery and treatment in diabetes worldwide. Personalised medicine means taking all available information into consideration to get the right treatment for them. I’m proud that the partnership between the University and the RD&E means we make a meaningful difference to people’s lives, both in the South West and across the globe.”

The programme will run Tuesday August 16 at 20.02 hours, repeated on Sunday August 21 at 17.02. It will then be available on iPlayer.

Date: 16 August 2016