Rachel Ann Connor

Director of Research Partnerships, BreakthroughT1D UK. Lover of science, data, and the power of words. Tea-drinking, cake-scoffing mum-of-two. All views my own.

[elsadiabetes @elsadiabetes]

T1D develops before you have any symptoms. Thanks to years of dedicated research we now know that people can start developing T1D for more than 15 years before symptoms show. The development of the condition can be split into separate stages. https://t.co/fD03vaNWwl

[Prof May Ng OBE 吳 诗 梅 @mayng888]

3/3
Research should not sit on a shelf or remain hidden behind journal pages. It should inform, empower and support real people, families and communities.
That is why sharing the message matters.
Please explore and share the #UNBIASED resources here:
https://t.co/XRVWdGBSsP

[Prof May Ng OBE 吳 诗 梅 @mayng888]

2/3 But some of the most meaningful outputs have been the resources co-created and co-developed with people with lived experience, including infographics, videos, animation and leaflets for clinics for families and HCPs.

[Prof May Ng OBE 吳 诗 梅 @mayng888]

For our national @DUK_research funded #UNBIASED study, conceived from #DRSG7 #Diabetes Research Steering Group for Children&Young People, the impact goes far beyond academic papers. To date, the work has resulted in five publications, with a sixth currently under review. 1/3

[Breakthrough T1D UK @BT1DUK]

The UK Professional Conference on Eating Disorders and Diabetes (UKPCEDD) returns on 8 June 2026 at The Slate, University of Warwick.

The conference brings together leading professionals, researchers, and experts to explore the critical intersection between eating disorders and diabetes, offering research updates and best practices for patient care.

Don’t miss out, early bird ticket sales end on 30 April!

Find out more: https://t.co/xQpP7Xj8cw

#T1DE #T1D #GBdoc

[Rachel Ann Connor @coracle1]

@JamesCantleyLab @IldemAkerman @ibex01 @SarahIBEx I’ve managed to miss taking useful photos from Mike Weiss’s talk about his work on a novel insulin-glucagon fusion protein! Exciting to see the progress the team is making and the prospect of a company to develop this idea! Watch this space!

[Rachel Ann Connor @coracle1]

So excited to be at the #Type1DiabetesGrandChallenge session at #dukpc, chaired by Prof Simon Heller and Liam Eaglestone, CEO of the Steve Morgan Foundation. Liam describes the ambition of the challenge & Simon outlines 3 themes: cell therapy, causes & triggers and novel insulins

[Rachel Ann Connor @coracle1]

@JamesCantleyLab @IldemAkerman @ibex01 @SarahIBEx Questions both comment how clear it is that this work is so relevant to thinking about early #T1D in the clinic. Teifion describes how this data indicates that the window of opportunity to protect beta cells in the youngest kids is small, underlining the importance of screening

[Rachel Ann Connor @coracle1]

@elsadiabetes @KGillespieBris @T1DRAdiabetes @BesserBesser Next from @NHSEngland we have Prof Marc Atkin opening with the promise and hope that exists now for delivering immunotherapies to change the earliest stages of #T1D, and some of the unknowns the NHS is going to have to navigate to get to fair and equitable implementation.

[Rachel Ann Connor @coracle1]

@RenukaDias kicks off the early detection session with a reminder of how much we have learned about the stages of #T1D development in the last decade and how much we are learning from multiple screening studies and programmes across the world (sorry for the photo quality) #dukpc

[Rachel Ann Connor @coracle1]

@elsadiabetes @KGillespieBris @T1DRAdiabetes @BesserBesser Really important work to embed clinical champions for early T1D clinical care in the UK, with regional clinical champions to help with information and awareness, and data collection across the UK. The momentum building in the UK is impressive!