Identifying those at risk of developing complications from diabetes

Professor Sam El-Osta is part of a Danish-
Australian collaboration investigating diabetic
complications. See full story

Danish and Australian researchers are teaming up with the goal of better understanding the relationship between the risks for and actual development of complications arising from diabetes, including diabetic kidney disease (DKD).

“Our goal is to understand the burden, natural history and propensity of the Danish population, with or at risk of diabetes, to develop complications,” they say. “We want to outline the clinical, metabolic and epigenetic correlates of diseases in order ultimately to predict, treat and prevent diabetic kidney disease.” An important associated goal of the group is to find those patients with diabetic kidney disease who need more aggressive treatment. 

Congrats to Runa Lindblom and Sin Ki Ng on their PhDs!

L-R: Runa Lindblom and Sin Ki Ng

Congratulations to Ms Runa Lindblom and Ms Sin Ki Ng on the award of their PhDs!

Runa's thesis is "Mitochondrial function in Diabetic Kidney Disease: Insights from targeting mitochondrial pore-forming cell death proteins". Runa was supervised by Associate Professor Melinda Coughlan and Professor Mark Cooper in CCS's Department of Diabetes, and Dr Gavin Higgins at the Cancer Council Victoria.

Figuring out why diabetes affects the kidneys

L-R: Professors Karin Jandeleit-Dahm,
Mark Cooper and Dr Jakob Oestergaard

Dr Jakob Oestergaard is a Danish physician, who is currently visiting Central Clinical School's Department of Diabetes for one year from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark to pursue his interest in diabetes research and clinical treatment.

In particular, he’s interested in the mechanisms which lead to diabetic nephropathy and other complications from diabetes. This represents a major health issue, as type 2 diabetes is on the increase, now affecting almost 10% of the world’s population. Up to 40% of these patients will develop diabetic kidney disease.

Answering a fundamental question about the cause of Diabetic Kidney Disease

Dr Jay Jha, who has won a DARP grant

to investigate the origin of DKD

Congratulations to Dr Jay Jha, an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow, Department of Diabetes, on his successful grant award from Diabetes Australia Research Program (DARP). The grant of $60,000 is for one year, to investigate the pathological relevance of pro-oxidant enzyme NOX5 in diabetic kidney disease (DKD).

Discovery may help reduce renal failure in those with diabetic kidney disease

Associate Professor Melinda Coughlan

A new discovery has the potential to slow the progression of kidney disease in people with diabetes.

Researchers from Monash University’s Central Clinical School (CCS) have found that a drug that has already been tested on other inflammatory diseases can decrease kidney injury caused by diabetes.

Led by Associate Professor Melinda Coughlan from the Department of Diabetes, the five-year study is a collaboration between CCS, the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland and the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne.