Boehringer Ingelheim, EFSD announce first diabetes funding recipients

Global pharma company, Boehringer Ingelheim, has announced the first recipients of the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) / Boehringer Ingelheim European Diabetes Research Programmes. The aim of the partnership and the European-wide funding initiative is to help stimulate and accelerate key areas of diabetes research in Europe.

"EFSD is proud to join forces with Boehringer Ingelheim to further explore one of the defining health problems of the 21st century. Diabetes remains insufficiently understood and its impact on those living with the condition is immeasurable. The quality of grant applications received is an encouraging sign of the continued efforts being made by researchers who have valuable contributions to make towards expanding our knowledge and understanding of this disease."

Prof. Andrew J. M. Boulton, President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) / EFSD.

The awards are given for outstanding research into cutting-edge approaches to diabetes, focusing on two areas of interest:

• Regulations of secretion and / or function of non-insulin peptides from the endocrine pancreas (basic research)

• Mechanisms relating renal dysfunction to cardiovascular disease in Type 2 Diabetes (clinical research)

The three winners and their proposals, whose grants together total $2.5 million, are:

• Stefan Amisten: King's College London - UK
Identification and functional characterisation of peptide ligands of G-protein coupled receptors in mouse and human islets

• Hiddo Heerspink: University Medical Center Groningen - The Netherlands
Urinary proteomics to predict and unravel mechanisms of renal and cardiovascular disease in diabetic nephropathy

• Markus van der Giet: Charitè University Berlin - Germany
Biomarker-based formula to predict HDL functionality in patients with chronic kidney disease and diabetes mellitus

Approximately 371 million people worldwide have type 1 and type 2 diabetes, of which type 2 is the most common as it accounts for 90% of all cases. Over the next twenty years, the number of people with diabetes is expected to increase by 50%.