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Novo Nordisk / © Stephen Foote
Professor John Andrew Todd – Professor of Precision Medicine and Director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics and of the JDRF/Wellcome Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory (DIL) – was honoured for his world-class research that potentially foresees type 1 diabetes and daily insulin injections as a thing of the past.
He said: ‘My first thought was that I was overwhelmed and very honoured to receive the prize. And my second was for type 1 diabetes, because the disease is the overlooked little brother of type 2. Well, this is changing.
‘I think the scientific community underestimates what a burden it is to have a child with type 1 diabetes even if that child is using all the modern devices. Night-time is still a worry, for example, because a child might have a hypoglycaemic episode. So, I thank all the people with whom I have worked on type 1 diabetes and brought the field to where it is today.’