Six talented researchers from across Australia have completed the JDRF/Macquarie Group Foundation Future Research Leaders Program. 

The world-first program is designed to support medical researchers in type one diabetes develop their leadership skills to help translate their innovations out of the lab and into the real world. The program graduates have already put their skills into practice, securing funding to look at a dietary supplement that could stop type one diabetes.  

TRI based researcher Dr Emma Hamilton-Williams (University of Queensland Diamantina Institute) was a part of the group and will now be involved in the newly funded project. 

The researchers were required to design an innovative research project that put the skills they learned into practice and meet the high standard for securing research funding through the Australian Research Council’s Special Research Initiative (SRI) in Type 1 Diabetes. The SRI funds the Australian Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network (CRN), administered by JDRF - the leading global organisation funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. 

Federal Minister for Health Greg Hunt said “The Turnbull Government will continue to back our world-leading Australian researchers to deliver better health outcomes for all Australian patients.” 

The researchers hope to publish their first research findings in 2019 with the next step being to test if this dietary supplement can prevent or reverse type one diabetes in humans.

>Read Dr Emma Hamilton-Williams’s article about the program here

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt celebrating the program's completion and funding announcement.