> 250 publications, H -index 72,  > 20,000 citations

Immunotherapy of Type 1 Diabetes

Our group is committed to finding low-risk immunotherapies able to preserve beta cell function in type 1 diabetes (T1D) and introduce these therapies into clinic care. We collaborate with colleagues across the UK in the Type 1 Diabetes Immunotherapy Consortium to conduct clinical trials in adults and children with new-onset type 1 diabetes and develop new approaches to beta cell preservation (www.type1diabetesresearch.org.uk). Studies range from first-in-man to phase III. In this area we work closely with partners including Diabetes UK, the Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF), Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Diabetes Research Unit Wales and ELSA Diabetes.  We are developing suitable outcome markers and a Masterprotocol for beta cell protection studies in early stage (stage 1 or 2) pre-clinical diabetes to accelerate the development of therapies that delay or prevent the need for insulin. We are particularly interested in the efficient development of combination disease-modifying therapies using advanced clinical trial designs in both new onset and early stage T1D.  

Thyroid Research Group

Our current focus is on Thyroid Eye Disease (Graves' Orbitopathy, GO) and the mechanisms underlying this disfiguring and distressing condition. We work closely with ophthalmology colleagues and as part of TEAMeD and the EUGOGO group to conduct clinical studies to improve therapies and implement measures to improve outcomes (www.btf-thyroid.org/projects/teamed/332-teamed-5).

The Thyroid Research Group also conducts large scale epidemiological, genetic and data linkage studies to define the effects of changes in thyroid hormone levels across the population, to study the effects of thyroid hormone replacement and alternative forms of replacement.

Scientific contributions of our research group include:

• First to clone and define antigen specific T cells from the target organ in Graves disease, demonstrating a highly focused but multi-antigenic response
• First large RCT of diet vs diet and exercise in new-onset type 2 diabetes – indicating that diet alone is as effective as diet and exercise for glycaemic control and weight reduction
• Set up of the UK Type 1 Diabetes Immunotherapy Consortium to coordinate immunotherapy trials in new-onset type 1 diabetes across the UK: increased recruitment into trials 10-fold; two multicenter studies fully recruited to date and to time/ahead of time with 4 in set-up.
• Demonstration of the safety and potential for efficacy of peptide based immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes in man including two first-in-man studies.
• Development of novel platforms in humans for antigen specific immunotherapy and monitoring in type 1 diabetes including direct lymph node sampling.
• First randomised trial evidence that the Th17 T cell pathway is relevant to Type 1 Diabetes
• Development of data-linkage cohorts with SAIL (Farr Institute) covering subjects with thyroid disease and all children in Wales with type 1 diabetes (Brecon cohort): demonstration that educational outcomes in Type 1 Diabetes are associated with blood glucose levels.
• Description of the genetic architecture underlying thyroid function using next generation sequencing and its application in Mendelian Randomisation to demonstrate an effect of fat mass on circulating T3 levels in children.

Colin Dayan, MA MBBS, FRCP, PhD – biographical details.

Professor of Clinical Diabetes and Metabolism, Cardiff University School of Medicine.  

Colin Dayan trained in medicine at University College, Oxford, and Guy's and Charing Cross Hospitals in London, UK before obtaining a PhD in the cellular immunology of Graves' Disease in Laboratory of Marc Feldmann. He then spent a year as an endocrine fellow at the Massachussetts General Hospital in Boston, USA before completing his specialist training in diabetes and endocrinology as a Lecturer in Bristol. He became a consultant senior lecturer in medicine (diabetes/endocrinology) at the University of Bristol in 1995 and Head of Clinical Research at the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology in Bristol in 2002. In 2010, he was appointed to the Chair of Clinical Diabetes and Metabolism and Head of Section at Cardiff University School of Medicine. He served as Director of the Institute of Molecular and Experimental Medicine in 2011 – 2015 and was Cardiff Joint Research Office Director in 2021-2025, and Senior Research Fellow at the Univesity of Oxford 2020-2025. Fellow of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland. In 2026 he was appointed at 125 Anniversary Chair in Diabetes and Endocrinology in the Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Birmingham, UK.

He has a long established interest in translational research in the immunopathology of type 1 diabetes (T1D). He has been Chief Investigator on more than 15 phase I-III clinical trials of immunotherapies to preserve beta cell function (T1D) and leads the UK T1D Research Consortium clinical trials network with 30 clinical sites across the UK. He supported the application to the FDA for the first licensed Immunotherapy for T1D in 2022. He was awarded the Sir Derrick Melville Dunlop Medal from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 2019 and the JDRF International/Breakthrough T1D David Rumbough prize in 2024.

He also has research interests in thyroid disease which include thyroid autoimmunity, thyroid hormone replacement and bioavailability, genetic epidemiology as applied to population variation in thyroid hormone bioavailability and thyroid eye disease. He secretary of the European Thyroid Association in 2013-2017 and chairs the UK Thyroid Eye Disease Amsterdam Implementation Group.

From 2016-2022 he was secretary/treasurer of the Association of Physicians and from 2019-2025 was the Clinical Research Secretary of the British Society of Immunology.

Honours and awards

• 2024 David Rumbough Prize, JDRF International /Breakthrough T1D  (New York)
• 2019 Sir Derrick Melville Dunlop Medal, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
• 2019 Peter Lauberg Prize, Danish Thyroid Society

Professional memberships

• Diabetes UK
• Society for Endocrinology
• British Society for Immunology
• Immunology of Diabetes Society
• British Thyroid Association
• European Thyroid Association
• European Association for the Study of Diabetes
• Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland