The three-year DRWF Non-Clinical Research Fellowship 2010 has been awarded to Dr Sarah Richardson, Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth.
Dr Richardson said, 'I am delighted to hear the news that I have been awarded the Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation 2010 Non-Clinical Fellowship and am very much looking forward to starting the project. Thank you for this fantastic opportunity and I look forward to working with you over the next few years.'
Dr Richardson’s work so far has given substantial support to the hypothesis that enteroviruses might be a trigger for type 1 diabetes. This new research seeks out to verify this by identifying which particular enteroviral serotype/s are involved in the process.
In addition to this, the research will aim to develop a greater understanding of how these viruses can trigger the demise of the insulin-secreting beta cells. This will be done by making use of a unique collection of human pancreases obtained from patients who died soon after developing type 1 diabetes.
Dr Richardson continued, 'We hope that this research will reveal whether viruses can trigger type 1 diabetes and that it will demonstrate how they do this.'