KI researcher Sergiu Catrina receives grant from the U.S. for a diabetes study
Sergiu Catrina, associate professor of endocrinology at Karolinska Institutet and medical director at the Center for diabetes, has been awarded a three-year research grant of just over USD 1 million from the American organisation Breakthrough T1D. The grant funds a study investigating the effect of the drug roxadustat on kidney oxygenation in individuals with type 1 diabetes.
The grant from Breakthrough T1D finances the clinical study FOXTROT, which examines the effect of roxadustat on kidney oxygenation in people with type 1 diabetes and concurrent kidney failure. The aim of the study is to improve kidney function in this patient group.
“The study addresses a very significant medical need: finding treatments that can improve kidney function in this patient group,” says Sergiu Catrina, research group leader at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, KI.
“Unlike type 2 diabetes, where several drugs – such as SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and finerenone – have shown positive effects on kidney function, there are currently no approved drugs for type 1 diabetes that offer similar benefits in cases of kidney damage,” he continues.