International research project tracks the development of diabetes
Diabetes may be prevented in the future if the early signs of the disease are recognised.
Researchers at the Turku Centre for Biotechnology are studying the development of type 1 diabetes. The disease results from loss of insulin producing cells found in the pancreas, but how and why it starts remains a mystery. While many of the adverse affects of the disease may be circumvented by insulin therapy, there is no known cure. Current research in type 1 diabetes, like many other modern diseases, is moving from the stage of therapy to disease prediction and prevention.
David Goodlett and Riitta Lahesmaa
- In order to prevent irreversible damage to the pancreas it’s important to find early signs of the disease. If we recognise the signs of disease at an early stage, then we could – for example – use inflammatory treatment to prevent the destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Thus, the goal we have set here is to stop the development of the disease before it begins, describes Professor Riitta Lahesmaa, Director of the Turku Centre for Biotechnology.
With the announcement of a FiDiPro grant, which stimulates international collaborations in Finland, the type 1 diabetes research has received a big boost. This specific FiDiPro award will involve Professor David Goodlett from the University of Washington who will participate in the four-year project. Professor Goodlett’s field of expertise includes proteomics – the study of proteins – and mass spectrometry, which is the most common research instrument used in proteomics.
- Professor Goodlett has developed several cutting-edge techniques that will be employed in Turku to aid the search for understanding early changes to the serum proteome in type 1 diabetes. We are delighted to have him as a visiting professor to further our long-standing collaboration, Lahesmaa tells.
- As Professor Lahesmaa indicates, I have collaborated with the researchers at the Centre for Biotechnology since 2002. So, I know many of them already and believe this will help us get off to a pretty good start, Goodlett says.
Systematic research due to a new method
FiDiPro
- FiDiPro (Finland Distinguished Professor Programme), financed by Tekes and the Academy of Finland, provides Finnish universities and research institutes with the opportunity to employ distinguished professor-level scientists from all around the world for a fixed term. Expatriate Finnish scientists who have long worked outside Finland are also eligible.
- Tekes and the Academy of Finland open calls on a regular basis. Finnish universities and research institutes may propose FiDiPro Professors and FiDiPro Fellows from all disciplines.
- The application for funding must always be made by a Finnish university or research institute, not by the international researcher personally.
The fact that the Lahesmaa research group was already collaborating closely with Finnish diabetes researchers will also help the project get off to a good beginning. Specifically, Professors Olli Simell and Mikael Knip have gathered a unique biobank in their Prediction and Prevention of Type 1 Diabetes (DIPP) study. The samples have been collected from children who have a high risk for diabetes during a period lasting from birth to the contraction of the disease. In this project, the researchers look for serum proteins related to type 1 diabetes. The FiDiPro award will allow David Goodlett to use a new method his research group developed to examine the samples.
- This new method allows us to systematically look for all proteins in the sample and hopefully see proteins that other methods, which are mostly random in nature, wouldn’t reveal. The new method combined with the extensive biobank of longitudinal samples should give us a good chance of finding proteins that predict or cause the disease or show up as a result of it, Goodlett says.
Cutting-edge research and cultural exchange
Turku Centre for Biotechnology coordinates a Biocenter Finland network called ProMet. The network focuses on proteomics and metabolomics as well as infrastructure and method development. The knowledge and technical know-how brought to Turku during this FiDiPro award will benefit the whole network.
- The systematic proteome scanning methods of Professor Goodlett can be used in the research of other diseases as well, and so the deployment of the technology here will benefit us all, Lahesmaa says.
International collaboration is also an important opportunity for networking and personnel exchange.
- At the end of the day, research, like most human activities, relies on good working relationships. So, I hope that during the four-year project my students can come over here and vice versa. These international collaborations provide a great benefit both in and out of the laboratory as a form of cultural exchange, Goodlett says.
Suvi Kauppila