One in Six Billion – Details, episodes & analysis

Dr Jean Claude Katte explains how in Sub Saharan Africa diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of Type 1 diabetes in children and young adults is so much harder than in Europe.  He discusses with Maggie and Andrew his own exciting research that has shown that around 60% of African children with diabetes do not have the typical autoimmune Type 1 diabetes seen in over 90% of children with diabetes in Europe. Jean Claude aims to do more research to discover what causes this new cause of severe young-onset diabetes in Sub Saharan Africa.

Send us a text

We hear from Mendy Korer about the enormous challenges of living with a child who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes aged 11 months. Matt Johnson, a research fellow in Exeter talks about his exciting work understanding what makes the immune system destroy the insulin making beta-cells in very young children. 

Send us a text

In this episode, Maggie and Andrew talk to Dr Elisa De Franco, the Exeter based genetic scientist whose research has discovered more genetic causes of diabetes than anyone else in the world.

Send us a text

In this special episode Andrew Hattersley talks with co-presenter Maggie Shepherd to identify what led to her joining the Exeter team in 1995 and ending up becoming the leading nurse for monogenic diabetes with a role combining clinical care, research and education 

Send us a text

In this episode, Maggie and Andrew start by talking to Carsyn Underwood and her mums Karla and Donna about Carsyn’s diagnosis of neonatal diabetes and how she got the right treatment very early and had an the excellent outcome as a result,.  

They go on to talk to Professor Tim McDonald, a top NHS laboratory scientist, who has been researching into how we can make sure everyone is diagnosed early by developing universal screening for neonatal diabetes in the first week of life.

Send us a text

In this episode, Maggie and Andrew talk to Dr Pam Bowman, the doctor scientist, whose research has greatly advanced our understanding of neonatal diabetes. Pam showed treatment with sulphonylurea tablets control the glucose excellently in the long term and she transformed our understanding of how thinking, and development are altered by the change in the potassium channel gene.

Send us a text

In this episode Maggie and Andrew talk to Dame Frances Ashcroft the remarkable Oxford scientist who has dedicated her life to understanding the key role of potassium channel in insulin secretion by the pancreatic beta-cell.  Her work was crucial both before and after the Exeter genetic discovery in neonatal diabetes

Send us a text

In this episode, we hear from Laurie and Mike Jaffe from Chicago, USA.  They spread the word about neonatal diabetes to over 100M people around the world by an inspirational media campaign focused on their daughter, Lilly and how the diagnosis and resulting treatment change transformed her life. 

Send us a text

In this episode we hear from Agnes Graja and Helen John, two of the national team of Genetic Diabetes Nurses that spread the news about neonatal diabetes across the UK. They identified and improved treatment in insulin-treated adults who had been diagnosed with diabetes in the first 6 months of life.

Send us a text

In this special episode Maggie Shepherd talks with co-presenter Andrew Hattersley exploring what led to him ending up as a research scientist and diabetes consultant in Exeter in 1995.  They go back into how he became a doctor and what took him into research including surprising revelations about a transformative time in Africa as an 18-year-old!  

Send us a text