Our research

The Rio Tinto Children's Diabetes Centre is a group of dedicated researchers striving to develop more effective therapies to improve the lives of children, adolescents and young adults living with type 1 diabetes.

The Centre's comprehensive research program incorporates state-of-the-art technologies, therapies and education that are all aimed at improving outcomes and equity of access for those living with diabetes by accelerating new therapies and evidence into practice and improving life expectancy by closing the mortality gap of 10 years.

As an integrated clinical and research centre, our mission is to better understand and change the way we treat diabetes by developing personalised models of care that are tailored to individuals.

Our team works with world-class researchers, clinicians and the diabetes community to deliver the right treatment, to the right person, at the right time

Our research focus areas include:

Technology

Much of our research focuses on understanding how technology improves blood glucose control and how it impacts on the lives of patients.

Exercise

People with type 1 diabetes are prone to hypoglycaemia after some types of exercise. We are interested in working out ways to prevent this with the aim of including our findings in clinical guidelines.

Nutrition

Our researchers are trying to learn more about the effect different types of food have on blood glucose levels and how to give the best insulin dose to manage a variety of foods.

Epidemiology

The incidence of type 1 diabetes is increasing globally. We are using Western Australian data to understand this trend and to better inform clinical practice in Australia and internationally.

Mental health and wellbeing

Maintaining optimal blood glucose levels can be stressful and cause anxiety. We are interested to understand how changes in blood glucose levels affect anxiety and mental wellbeing and we are also monitoring how patients cope with the stress of diabetes on a daily basis so that interventions can be designed.

Student opportunities

The Rio Tinto Children's Diabetes Centre is looking for new Higher Degree Research Candidates to join our teams from 2023. We look for the best and brightest to join our world leading experts in children’s diabetes research.