Most of us know that insulin plays an important role in removing excess glucose from the blood, but did you know it isn’t the only molecule involved in the process? Another molecule that plays a role is glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1).

When Simon Kitching was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in his early 30s he admits he put his head in the sand, hoping it would “go away” if he just took his tablets.

Despite watching his own father struggle with the complications of type 2 diabetes for many years and knowing it ran in his family, Simon didn’t take serious steps to change his lifestyle and manage his own type 2 diabetes until a few years later.

Not everybody responds to medicines in the same way. For instance, some common type 2 diabetes medications have serious side effects for some people while they just aren’t effective in others.

That’s why the University of Melbourne’s Professor Matthew Watt and his team are currently studying a protein called SMOC1 to see if it could play a role in treating type 2 diabetes.

While there is strong evidence to support the view that some people have a genetic predisposition to type 1 diabetes, scientists still don’t understand what actually triggers the onset of the disease.

That’s why they can’t explain why, in some identical twins, one twin develops type 1 diabetes and the other doesn’t.

Heart disease is one of the major complications associated with diabetes, however some of the first line treatments used to reduce a person’s risk of heart disease, don’t work as well in people with diabetes.

This problem is a major focus of research being conducted by Dr Brian Drew and his colleagues at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and supported by the Diabetes Australia Research Trust.