Diabetes and Endocrinology Research

Diabetes Research (Adults)

Working both on investigator-led and commercial studies, these range from trials of new medicinal products, testing cutting-edge clinical devices and understanding diabetes and its related conditions as well as other types of research. We proudly represent the NHS by delivering high-quality research and supporting patients through their research journey. Although we are based at St James’s Hospital, we frequently deliver research across sites within LTHT and the wider community.

Professor Ramzi Ajjan PI

Professor of Metabolic Medicine and Honorary Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Leeds University and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. He runs a research team of 14 individuals. He is the Head of the Clinical Population and Sciences Department at the University of Leeds, the local R&D lead for Diabetes/Endocrinology and the regional clinical research network lead for Diabetes. He is the Deputy Editor of Diabetes and Vascular Disease Research on the International Journal of Molecular Sciences Editorial Board. He is a member of the European Society of Cardiology working group on thrombosis. His clinical research is focused on optimising glycaemia in Diabetes, while his translational studies aim to identify new therapeutictargets to reduce thrombosis risk in Diabetes.

Julie Bailey

Julie leads the team of research nurses and clinical trials assistants for Diabetes and Endocrinology at St James’s Hospital. She has considerable research experience, having worked in the field for over fourteen years. She has contributed to developing an induction booklet for new staff new to research, for which she and her colleagues have been nominated for awards. She has also developed a tool for staff to audit their projects’ quality. This work led to a winning abstract and poster presentation at a local conference where she had to present the tool.

Dr Robert Murray, Associate Professor

Dr Murray set up the Adult Endocrine Research team with a dedicated Endocrine Research Nurse at St James’s in 2009. Since then, we have been involved with Endocrine Research at all levels. This includes Principal Lead research applications using the Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) website, setting up and running day-to-day studies and coordinating portfolios, Commercial and Non-Commercial studies, including phase 2,3, trials, interventional and observational studies and collaborating with other Trusts. We focus on rare endocrine diseases, including Growth Hormone Deficiency, Acromegaly, Pituitary Apoplexy, Adrenal Insufficiency and Thyroid disease.

We developed a strong link with our endocrine patients over the years and have facilitated and attended Patient Support Group meetings for the “Pituitary Foundation” before the global pandemic. We have also involved our patients in setting up recent trials, asking them for feedback on Patient Information Sheets and study design.

We presently have three ongoing commercial studies, two trialling novel somatostatin analogue preparations for patients with Acromegaly and another using weekly growth hormone for GHD patients, and PI lead studies and collaborative studies in various tertiary Endocrine centres across the UK.