Research collaboration
Finnish contract research organisation VTT has started a three-year project with Turku University Hospital, Finland and Gothenburg University, Sweden to try and devise prevention strategies for type 1 diabetes.
Previous research by VTT – Northern Europe’s largest contract research organisation – has identified early metabolic signatures predictive of progression to autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes. This work has suggested that gut microbes may play a role in the early pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes.
In this project, “The gut microbiota as a novel target for prevention of type 1 diabetes”, researchers will explore whether the presence or absence of particular microbes are linked to subsequent development of diabetes. They will use the data produced to develop prevention strategies.
VTT will coordinate the project, which is funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in the USA. It is thought that the incidence of type 1 diabetes in Finland will double over the next 15 years, and that the age of onset will fall to between birth and 4 years.
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