Simon Goode was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes aged 28.  He explains how it took 6 months of feeling unwell before it was realised he had Type 1 diabetes instead. Exeter Professor, Angus Jones, has done research showing that mistakes in the diagnosis Type of 1 diabetes are common in the older adult and offers solutions to help doctors get the diagnosis right. 

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Dr Jean Claude Katte explains how in Sub Saharan Africa diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of Type 1 diabetes in children and young adults is so much harder than in Europe.  He discusses with Maggie and Andrew his own exciting research that has shown that around 60% of African children with diabetes do not have the typical autoimmune Type 1 diabetes seen in over 90% of children with diabetes in Europe. Jean Claude aims to do more research to discover what causes this new cause of severe young-onset diabetes in Sub Saharan Africa.

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We hear from Mendy Korer about the enormous challenges of living with a child who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes aged 11 months. Matt Johnson, a research fellow in Exeter talks about his exciting work understanding what makes the immune system destroy the insulin making beta-cells in very young children. 

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Professor Richard Oram had the innovative idea of turning complex analysis of the genetic changes  into a single number that estimate the likelihood of developing Type 1 diabetes. He explains to Andrew and Maggie how this has helped diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes and is being used around the world in studies aiming to prevent or delay diabetes in children.

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Professor Partha Kar has made sure the technical advances in measuring blood sugar are available to everyone living with Type 1 diabetes in the UK.  Partha had to overcame massive hurdles to make sure the technology was not just available to a privileged few. He discusses with Maggie and Andrew his inspirational leadership style and philosophy that have helped him to move mountains in the NHS.

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Jean Dudderidge and Jill Epton talk about what it has been like to live with Type 1 diabetes for over 50 years. They discuss the massive advances in the measurement of blood sugar over the decades and how they now benefit greatly from continuous glucose monitoring.

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Moira Murphy and Mark McCarthy talk about how a unified UK team of scientists came to be world leaders in decoding the genetic susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes.

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We talk to Tim Frayling and Rachel Freathy about how they discovered the “Fat gene”.  Working with Oxford, the Exeter team showed a genetic change near FTO predisposed to obesity. This was the first and largest common genetic change altering weight.

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In this special episode, we hear from Professor Tim Frayling who was Andrew and Sian’s first PhD student in 1995. He rapidly became the head of the analysis for the genetic susceptibility for Type 2 diabetes.  His leadership has made Exeter an international leader in polygenic trait genetics.

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In this special episode, we hear from Professor Sian Ellard who, like Andrew and Maggie, started in Exeter in 1995.  Sian set up the Exeter molecular genetics laboratory from scratch.  Through Sian’s leadership, this laboratory became world leading for both research and NHS diagnostic testing.

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