The Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) and European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) partnership has announced the recipients of its European-wide funding initiative targeted at diabetes research. Totaling $3.3 million, these are the first grants to be awarded as part of the EFSD/Boehringer Ingelheim European Diabetes Research Programs, which aim to stimulate and accelerate European research in diabetes.

The awards are given for research into diabetes approaches, focusing on two areas of interest: regulations of secretion and/or function of non-insulin peptides from the endocrine pancreas (basic research) and mechanisms relating renal dysfunction to cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes (clinical research).

"These grants reflect our continued commitment to supporting medical innovation in diabetes research, a disease which affects over 370 million people worldwide. It is through continued independent research in this area that we will better understand how we can improve outcomes for patients with diabetes," said Klaus Dugi, corporate senior vice president, medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim.

Award winners were Stefan Amisten of King's College London, for the identification and functional characterization of peptide ligands of G-protein coupled receptors in mouse and human islets; Hiddo Heerspink of University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, for urinary proteomics to predict and unravel mechanisms of renal and cardiovascular disease in diabetic nephropathy; and Markus van der Giet of Charitè University Berlin, for biomarker-based formula to predict HDL functionality in patients with chronic kidney disease and diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects approximately 371 million people worldwide.Over the next 20 years, the number of people with the condition is expected to increase by 50%, reaching close to 552 million. The EFSD/Boehringer Ingelheim European Diabetes Research Programs aims to advance the knowledge of diabetes, its prevention and treatment with a view to easing the burden on people with diabetes.