On Tuesday 26 May, researchers from the Bhattacharya and Hodson groups hosted a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) event in partnership with Diabetes UK's Together Type 1 Youth Programme, focused on young people living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).
The event brought together researchers and T1D experts by experience to discuss a Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge research project to develop drugs from bugs. Megan Payne and Fernando Durães shared their work on developing peptide-based approaches derived from tick proteins to target chemokine-driven inflammation in T1D.
The day, which was organised by Megan Payne, included talks on how drug discoveries are made, demonstrations of laboratory techniques, and discussions exploring how patient perspectives can help shape future therapies.
One T1D young leader from the Together Type 1 community commented that events such as this help shape trust in scientific research and help patients feel that research is personally connected to them. Another attendee said that scientists should be shouting about their research projects more, as the T1D community wants to be inspired by their science and have hope for a cure.