Diabetes researcher Lizzie Haythorne joined the BHF/University of Edinburgh Centre for Cardiovascular Science (CVS) in December 2023, after six years in Frances Ashcroft's group at the University of Oxford.

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Lizzie's research is primarily about type 2 diabetes, the form of diabetes that happens when insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, known as beta cells, produce too little insulin, or when other cells in the body become resistant to insulin's effects. Over time, the health of the beta cells declines, resulting in less insulin production and making the situation still worse. Lizzie's work has shown that this decline in beta cell function is due to a failure of the beta cell to completely break down – or metabolise – glucose.

This means that some of the glucose breakdown products start to build up in the cell, triggering other processes that are harmful to the cell's health.