The Department of Paediatrics is undertaking groundbreaking research into medicines that can transform the lives of children living with diseases such as diabetes. The majority of research is undertaken through clinics with patients, translating laboratory research into real, pragmatic and effective treatments for children.
AdDIT: Adolescent Type 1 intervention trial
Young people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during childhood are at risk of long term complications including kidney, heart and circulatory disease which may reduce life expectancy by 10-15 years. This risk can be reduced by improving glycaemic control (HbA1c) but this can be difficult to achieve, particularly during adolescence.
The aim of AdDIT is to find out whether ACEIs and statins have a place in the treatment of adolescents with diabetes. Read more
Artificial Pancreas: closed-loop insulin delivery
Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the paediatric population. This year, 78,000 children worldwide were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and the incidence in children younger than 5 years is rising annually by around 3% in many countrie.
This trial focuses on the development of a closed-loop delivery system for insulin that does not require monitoring by the patient. Read more
This study originally recruited pregnant mothers from 2001-2009, and has measured over 1600 babies. A wide range of data was collected, through pregnancy and until infants were 2 years of age. This is allowing us to investigate how maternal factors and metabolism, environmental exposures, genes, early nutrition, hormones and other biological markers all affect:
- Early childhood growth and body composition
- Infancy diet
- Early play behaviour
- Early male reproductive tract development
This study is to evaluate a new method of measuring a protein called C-peptide by means of taking finger drop samples of blood from newly diagnosed patients with type 1 diabetes and confirm whether this new method is as accurate as the standard method. Read more
INNODIA is the Innovative Medicines Initiative or IMI-supported European consortium that aims to improve the understanding of type 1 diabetes and is paving the way to novel therapeutic options to prevent and cure this disease. INNODIA will collect throughout Europe blood samples and data from newly diagnosed patients with type 1 diabetes and first degree relatives of people with type 1 diabetes and study the evolution of the disease in these individuals.
INNODIA website link here
The primary objective is to evaluate changes in insulin sensitivity and secretion and incidence of impaired glucose tolerance in short children born SGA. This will be assessed by annual oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) alternating with intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTT). Insulin sensitivity will be assessed by HOMA and first phase insulin secretion will be assessed during long term growth hormone treatment. Read more
Although the medical conditions encountered in adult intensive care are not the same as those seen in neonatal units, there are many parallels and the relationship between hyperglycaemia, morbidity and mortality has already been suggested by previous studies in very low birth weight (less than 1500 g) new born infants. Read more
Both high and low blood sugar levels are common in preterm babies and this has been linked with poor outcome. One of the difficulties of managing sugar levels in preterm babies is that it involves a sample of blood being taken and as clinical teams try to avoid disturbing babies there is often a long time between measurements. There is now a device ‘real time continuous glucose monitoring’ (rCGM) that is used by some children and adults with diabetes which can provide data on glucose (sugar) levels continuously. This involves a small sensor being placed under the skin but it can be left there for up to a week and allows the medical team to respond quickly and treat changes in sugar levels to keep the sugar level within a normal range. Read more
The aim of this Mechanistic study is to determine if giving Metformin to children who are treated with Growth Hormone because they were born Small for Gestational Age (SGA) and remained short for their age, will show a better IGF-1 response to Growth Hormone treatment. We plan to recruit 24 children starting GH treatment and these will be from 4 paediatric endocrine units in Denmark, Ireland and the UK. Read more
Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet (TrialNet) is an international network of researchers who are exploring ways to prevent, delay and reverse the progression of type 1 diabetes. Read more