Award-winning scientists Victor Gault and Professor Peter Flatt

Two University of Ulster academics have won prestigious awards in recognition of their cutting-edge research into diabetes.

Dr Victor Gault and Professor Peter Flatt, who are both members of the ground-breaking Diabetes Research Group at Ulster, received their awards at the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference held in Glasgow.

Dr Gault received the Young Investigator Award for outstanding contribution to diabetes research. This highly competitive award, in recognition of young scientists’ efforts and innovations aimed at improving understanding of diabetes, is supported by Cambridge University NHS Foundation Trust and is given in memory of the highly renowned diabetes researcher Professor Charles Nicholas Hales.

Professor Flatt was recipient of the Dorothy Hodgkin Lecture Award in recognition of his international contribution to research in the field of diabetes. This is one of Diabetes UK’s highest honours in memory of the late Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin OM FRS (1910–1994), a Nobel Prize winner, who was described as one of the most outstanding scientists – and personalities – of the 20th century.

Dr Victor Gault said: “We are obviously delighted to have been awarded these prestigious prizes from Diabetes UK, a clear mark of the sustained quality of diabetes research at the University of Ulster”.

These prizes are only the latest in a recent stream of awards given to members of the Diabetes Research Group at Ulster who have a strong ethos for novel research into the science underlying diabetes.

Professor Flatt said: “Receipt of these awards also recognises the significant work of our entire research team in developing innovative approaches and drugs for treatment of the growing number of people in our community with obesity-associated diabetes”.

Diabetes and related obesity are important areas of public interest and concern prompting research into new and improved ways of tackling what is being described as the epidemic of the 21st century.

There are more than 150 million reported cases of diabetes worldwide and, potentially, an equal number who remain undiagnosed. The incidence of diabetes is set to increase to 220m by 2010 with a predicted doubling in the number of reported cases within 20 years. The huge cost of treating the disease has led to concerted efforts to find new therapies for treating, or even preventing, it.

Diabetes UK is the largest organisation in the UK working for people with diabetes. Diabetes UK has over 170,000 members whose focus is to improve the lives of people with diabetes, through funding research, campaigning and helping people live with this debilitating condition.

Ends

Notes to Editors

The Diabetes Research Group is part of the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute which was formally established on October 1, 2004, and incorporates the Centre for Molecular Biosciences and the Centre for Functional Genomics. Many of the research-active staff in Biomedical Sciences are members of this Institute.

In 2001 Ulster was awarded £14.5m to construct and develop the Centre for Molecular Biosciences, providing a fully equipped state-of-the-art research facility with new academic and support posts to facilitate growth and expansion of ongoing research activities.

The following year Ulster was awarded £2m funding under the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation Programme II to establish a Centre of Excellence in Functional Genomics, which is designed to exploit the recent revolution in genetics, in particular, how specific genes can be used to target life-threating conditions like cancer and diabetes.

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young