Professor Shareen Forbes

(Edinburgh, UK)

Shareen Forbes is Professor of Diabetic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Lead Physician of the Islet Transplant Programme in Scotland and Visiting Professor of the Islet Transplant Programme, Edmonton, Canada. She graduated in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh and did specialist registrar training in diabetes, endocrinology and general medicine in the North West Thames Rotation and was awarded her PhD from Imperial College London. She was subsequently awarded a Diabetes UK Clinical Intermediate Fellowship examining metabolism in people with glucose intolerance.

Her clinical research examines the progression of diabetes-related complications in people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes– this work is in collaboration with the Scottish Care Information – Diabetes Collaboration linked/Scottish Diabetes Research Network National dataset, the UK Islet Transplant Consortium and the Edmonton Clinical Islet Transplant Programme.

Shareen is the SfE Metabolic and Obesity Network Clinical Convener and is on the Scientific Advisory Committee of Novo Nordisk UK Research Foundation and the JDRF. She is also a member of the Diabetes UK Research Steering Group for Type 1 diabetes.

A major focus in her research laboratory is on islet transplantation in rodent models including the underlying mechanisms limiting the success of the procedure. Working closely with researchers in the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, she has made important contributions in the field showing the efficacy of cell therapies including mesenchymal stromal cells when co-transplanted with islets in pre-clinical models. She is actively pursuing these approaches at the clinical interface to improve long-term outcomes in people with Type 1 diabetes.