A fundraising campaign to support world-class diabetes research at Dundee University has raised £3.5 million and attracted a further £11m in follow-on funding.
The original £3m target has been surpassed and Professor Andrew Morris, whose team studies the basis of diabetes and its complications, said: “Dundee University and NHS Tayside are absolutely delighted about the success of the diabetes research campaign.
“The support and enthusiasm of the people of Tayside has been absolutely terrific. The campaign has allowed us to make Dundee one of the leading places in Europe for diabetes care and research.
“The campaign has been the catalyst for recruiting some of the brightest minds in diabetes research and attracting significant further support.”
Dundee is leading a 46m euro collaboration, involving more than 20 universities and six industry partners across Europe, to study the condition.
Professor Morris, director of the Medical Research Institute at Dundee, continued: “We have some of the most precise information on the care of people with diabetes anywhere internationally.
“About 20,000 people are living with diabetes in Tayside and, through our close partnership with the NHS, we have demonstrated that blindness associated with diabetes and other severe complications, such as amputations, have fallen by 40%.”
The Diabetes Research Campaign was launched in 2007 to develop research into the cause and treatment of diabetes.
Nearly 5% of the Scottish population have the condition and the number of sufferers is rising by 10,000 a year. This has resulted in significant demands and healthcare costs to the NHS to treat type 2 diabetes, which usually affects
people over the age of 40, and type 1 diabetes, which usually affects children and young adults.
Through the campaign, Dundee University has achieved its goal of becoming an international centre of excellence for research into the disease.
One of the campaign’s high-profile supporters is Dundee-born film star and university rector Brian Cox, who suffers from type 2 diabetes.
With the opening of the Gannochy Trust Clinical Research Suite, patients in Perthshire now have better access to clinical research, and researchers at PRI have the same first class facilities and support staff as are available in Dundee.
A grant from the NHS Endowment Fund led to the creation of new patient rooms in the Strathmore Diabetes Centre at Ninewells Hospital, allowing many more diabetics to take part in studies such as genetic research and drug trials.
Campaign funds were used to fit out a dedicated Diabetes Translational Research Institute, including costs to accommodate Dr Rory McCrimmon from Yale University, USA, with laboratory and specialist equipment and support to extend clinical research in type 1 and 2 diabetes.
Dr McCrimmon said: “Until we do find the cure which is very much a when and not an if we are passionate about developments in treatments which minimise the complications for people who have type 1 diabetes. We are proud that, with research projects like this, Scotland is fast becoming the centre for research into type 1 diabetes.”
Michael Archibald, the Perth businessman who chaired the campaign, said: “Everyone has helped us achieve a goal that required a tremendous community effort. As a diabetic, I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for their interest in what is still a very worrying and difficult condition.”