ENDIA

Australia's largest study into the cause of type 1 diabetes. Recruitment to the study is now complete. Find out more at www.endia.org.au and Harry B.

Recruitment to the ENDIA Study has closed. The ENDIA (Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity) study is looking into what contributes to the development of Type 1 Diabetes in early childhood. Type 1 Diabetes in children is twice as common as it was 20 years ago. This is because our environment has changed and at-risk children are more likely to develop Type 1 Diabetes. If we can understand exactly what in the environment is harmful or protective, we can develop strategies to prevent Type 1 Diabetes. We believe that children are exposed to these environmental triggers very early in life, perhaps even before they are born. Accordingly, the ENDIA study has recruited 1511 participants across Australia from the pregnancy or up to 6 months of age that have a first-degree relative (i.e. baby's Mum, Dad or older sibling) with Type 1 Diabetes. ENDIA is an observational investigation and does not involve any study medications or treatments. Further information is available on the ENDIA website at www.endia.org.au. This research has been supported by JDRF Australia, JDRF-I, Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative in Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes and the Leona M. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Please note, comments and opinions made by others are not necessarily endorsed by the ENDIA Study Team. All content posted by the ENDIA Team has had ethical approval for public view. Thanks for your interest in finding the causes of Type 1 Diabetes!

12/03/2026

🦠 Major ENDIA Discovery: Your Body's Response to Common Viruses May Hold the Key to Type 1 Diabetes

What we studied: We looked at how children's immune systems responded to (common childhood that nearly everyone gets).

We compared who developed early signs of with those who did not.

What your samples revealed: Children who developed showed different antibody patterns against these viruses—specifically:
• A consistent immune response pattern seen across all children
• Boys and girls showed different response patterns

The breakthrough: Almost every child gets these common viruses. Your participation helped us discover that it's not about catching the virus—it's about how each child's immune system responds to it that matters.

What this could lead to: ✨ Earlier ways to identify children at risk ✨ New approaches to ✨ Better understanding of why boys and girls have different chances of developing ✨ A completely new way of thinking about and autoimmunity.

Thank you, ENDIA families. Every sample, every visit, every bit of data you've shared over the years made this discovery possible. You're helping change how we understand type 1 diabetes.

🔗 Read the paper online: https://doi.org/10.2337/db25-0805

09/03/2026

Hello! My name is Addison. I am an ENDIAN. I am in the ENDIA Study because my mum has .

We want to see a world where type one becomes type none.

My mum helps me send all my p**p, wee, and other samples and information to ENDIA regional nurse, Sarah.

I live on the coast of . It’s very pretty.

Thanks for saying hello!

06/03/2026

The ENDIA Study team would like to acknowledge a remarkable career dedicated to improving the lives of people living with and at risk of type 1 diabetes — Professor Peter Colman. 🙏💙

Peter graduated with a degree in medicine from Monash University and trained in Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, going on to complete his MD studies in the autoimmunity of . What followed was a that has shaped the field in and around the world.

Since 1988, Peter has led the Endocrinology Laboratory, and since 1991 has served as Director of the Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital — more than three decades of extraordinary leadership.

His major research interests have centred on the prediction and prevention of , including his involvement with an international nasal vaccine trial and his co-leadership of the Australian and New Zealand TrialNet, Type1Screen and the ENDIA Study. He has been a driving force behind research into early-stage type 1 diabetes, giving families across Australia access to early risk detection and .

To the patients whose lives are better because of his care, to the researchers he mentored, and to the families who found hope through his work — this legacy is yours too.

Thank you, Peter. Enjoy every moment of a very well-earned . 🥂

Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet ANZ

03/03/2026

Evidence has shown 50% of pregnant women with type 1 diabetes experience glucose-related complications. Could automated insulin help?

Here we report on a study of 91 pregnant women with type 1 diabetes who used either:
- Closed-loop system (automated insulin delivery; AID), OR
- Standard care (pump/injections) + continuous glucose monitoring ( )

The results: Those using an AID experienced 65% time in range (TIR) compared to those using standard care of 50% TIR. That's a 15% improvement which has a flow on effect for mum and baby!

Reassuringly, serious "hypo" or "hyper" events were rare in both groups.

Why it matters:
Tight glucose control in is very important, but can be very hard to achieve. Closed-loop systems could help more women manage their diabetes without the constant mental load.

This is the largest study of its kind, and results strongly support closed-loop use in pregnancy with T1D 🌟

Read more online at: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2025.19578 (JAMA)

26/02/2026

🌎 New WHO Guidelines: Diabetes in Pregnancy 🌟

Reassuring news for mums-to-be living with type 1 diabetes! The new WHO guidelines are the first global roadmap to help women and babies thrive during .

What’s new?
✅ Care is built around the woman’s needs, values, and resources, aiming for a positive pregnancy experience
✅ Multidisciplinary specialist teams, like endocrinologists & maternal health experts, are now recommended for care
✅ Use of continuous glucose monitoring ( ) is advised for better blood glucose management, when available
✅ Early & serial ultrasounds, plus regular eye and kidney checks, are now part of routine diabetes pregnancy care
✅ Education is stepped up, with practical info about diet, activity, weight gain, and glycemic management tailored for pregnancy

How is this different?
🏥 Past guidelines focused mainly on gestational diabetes or general prenatal care. Now type 1, and other types of diabetes, has its own evidence-based, detailed global protocol
⚡ More personalised goals and monitoring, including CGM and regular specialist follow-up, improve both maternal and baby outcomes
👩‍⚕️ Ongoing review for long-term risks is stressed, not just insulin management

Why it matters? Accessible, specialist, and smarter care means safer pregnancies and healthier futures for mums and babies around the world.

Access the evidence-based guidelines at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240117044

22/02/2026

📢 New Study Sheds Light on Pregnancy Experiences of Women living with Type 1 Diabetes

A 15-year Mayo Clinic study compared outcomes for women with and matched to women without the condition to better understand current care needs.

🔍 What the study observed: Women with were more likely to experience certain pregnancy , such as , birth, or needing a . These outcomes are well-recognised in T1D pregnancies, and many are managed safely with modern monitoring and coordinated care.

For babies, the study noted higher rates of things like being large for gestational age (LGA), temporary low blood sugars, or needing extra monitoring after birth. Importantly, most of these conditions are treatable, and neonatal teams are highly experienced in managing them.

📊 The study also highlighted that maintaining target glucose levels during pregnancy remains challenging; something many families already know well. This finding reinforces ongoing efforts to develop better support, technology, and care models, not to create fear.

✨ Overall takeaway: Pregnancy with is often very successful. This study simply points to areas where continued improvements in care could make pregnancy an even safer and optimise birth outcomes to ensure a more supported experience for women living with this condition.

Read more at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2025.100664

18/02/2026

Congratulations to all our ENDIANs who graduated primary school in 2025! We’d love to hear how our ENDIANs are going in their first year of high school.

Any of them planning to become a researcher, scientist, nurse or doctor?

Please send us your photos and stories to endia@adelaide.edu.au

Thank you!

14/02/2026

🦠 Fascinating new research on gut health in Indigenous Australian infants with thanks to the contribution of ENDIA families and samples

A study published in Nature Communications compared the of 50 Indigenous infants from Elcho Island (Galiwin'ku) in remote Northern Territory with non-Indigenous infants participating in the ENDIA Study.
The key finding? Indigenous babies had significantly richer and more diverse gut bacteria—the kind typically found in traditional societies but increasingly rare in modern, industrialised populations.
What's driving these differences? It's not antibiotics, birth method, or when solid foods are introduced. Instead, our researchers believe it comes down to environment and lifestyle: traditional diet, close contact with land and animals, living in natural surroundings, and the way mothers pass beneficial microbes to their babies through birth and breastfeeding.
Indigenous infants also had higher levels of beneficial bacteria that thrive on breast milk, reflecting high rates of exclusive breastfeeding in these communities.
Why does this matter? This research captures an "ancestral" gut microbiome that hasn't been strongly shaped by Western lifestyles—offering important insights into how environment influences gut health and potentially long-term health outcomes.
It's a valuable reminder that modern living may have changed our internal ecosystems in ways we're only beginning to understand.
Read more: https://rdcu.be/eUFdK

10/02/2026

💙 How a mother’s type 1 diabetes may help protect her child
Researchers have discovered new clues about why children born to mothers with type 1 diabetes (T1D) have a lower chance of developing T1D when compared to fathers or siblings with the condition.
In a large study of over 1,700 children, researchers found subtle differences in DNA methylation — tiny chemical changes that can switch genes on or off — in children of mothers with T1D during pregnancy. These differences appeared in genes related to immune function and known T1D risk genes.
Even more fascinating, these methylation patterns could help predict which children might later develop early markers of diabetes (islet autoantibodies).
✨ What it means:
Environmental factors — like exposure to T1D in the womb — may shape how genes involved in diabetes risk are expressed, offering important clues for prevention and early intervention.
This open access article in Metabolism is online at https://rdcu.be/eO5K1

06/02/2026

We’d like to take a moment to thank those ENDIA Study and Type1Screen families who have participated in the “QuEST Study” (Qualitative Experiences of Screening and monitoring for Type 1 diabetes).

QuEST has now completed recruitment of 35 and who have detected through one of these screening programs and have experienced or follow-up for these, along with their caregivers.

In the meantime, we are proud to share with you the first publication about the perceptions and experiences of health care professionals around screening and monitoring for .

Sincere thanks to all those who provided their insights!

Read more at: https://doi.org/10.1111/dme.70178

24/01/2026

🔬✨ School Holiday Lab Visitors! ✨🔬

ENDIANs Grace and Michael dropped by the research lab today to deliver their samples and hang out with scientist, Emily!

Nothing says school holidays quite like a brother-sister lab adventure. 🧪👫 From curious questions to behind-the-scenes science, these two made Emily's day extra special.

Thanks for being such awesome ENDIA participants, Grace and Michael! Keep being champions of research! 💙

If you have an ENDIA visit coming up, and haven't been to the lab before, ask your coordinator before your next visit if it might be possible for your ENDIAN to become an honorary scientist for the day.

21/01/2026

This week we acknowledge the completion of the ENDIA study by Sia from

Congratulations, Sia, on putting up with 10 years of , providing , 💩, and swab samples, and filling in (well thanks to mum for those especially)!

And happy 10th birthday you ! We can’t thank you enough for all your very special contributions to our research. With your help we hope to be able to find the causes of type 1 diabetes so we can prevent it in future generations.

We recommend all our graduating ENDIANS continue less intensive and through Type1Screen. Although the risk of developing reduces over time, it doesn’t completely go away. Especially if you have EVER had an , even if it has gone away, it is worth considering checking every so often through . More information is available on their website: www.type1screen.org or their social media pages .

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Women's And Children's Hospital
Adelaide, SA
5006

Website

http://www.endia.org.au/

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