To say that Robert Turner’s contributions to diabetes research was significant is an understatement. His research paved the way for our understanding of what causes diabetes and how to manage the condition, providing definitive evidence that controlling blood sugar is crucial in preventing complications.
Born in the United Kingdom on November 26, 1938, Dr. Turner followed his family tradition to pursue medicine. He obtained a scholarship to study at Downing College in Cambridge, England and eventually studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital Medical School. It is here that he first developed his interest in diabetes while working under Dr. John Nabarro, a renowned endocrinologist at the time whose research investigated hormone levels in diabetes. Under Nabarro’s mentorship, Turner began to realize the importance of lab-based techniques to better understand the underlying causes of diabetes.
In the early 1970s, after briefly training in Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Turner joined the Nuffield Department of Medicine in Oxford University as a clinical lecturer and was given lab space to conduct his own research. What started as a small lab with only one technician, one nurse, and one research fellow eventually became the Diabetes Research Laboratory (DRL), one of the world’s leading centres for type 2 diabetes research. During his time there, Robert would recruit and train a generation of clinical researchers, many of whom later became respected experts in the field, and published countless ground-breaking papers that continue to see impact today.
Turner’s arguably greatest contributions came near the end of his career. It was well known that the pancreas produces insulin to control blood sugar levels. In type 2 diabetes, however, blood sugar levels are not properly regulated. Most scientists at the time believed that type 2 diabetes was caused by insulin resistance – the body being unable to respond to the produced insulin. Turner, however, strongly believed that the cause was defects in the pancreas itself preventing insulin production – a widely controversial view at the time. After tireless work for many years, he was proven right.
In addition to understanding the causes of type 2 diabetes, he was also a pioneer in helping patients manage their condition. This all began while he was feeling unwell in New Dehli in 1976. With only a scrap piece of paper on hand, he began scribbling down the outline of what eventually became the world’s largest and longest diabetes study at the time: the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study. The study would involve treating and monitoring the conditions of approximately 7,600 diabetic patients over a span two decades across the United Kingdom. Despite multiple funding crises over the years, the study was finally completed in 1997 and showed for the first time that controlling blood sugar levels is key to preventing diabetes-related cardiovascular complications. This study received critical acclaim among researchers when the results were first presented in 1998. It would cement his legacy as one of the world’s leading diabetes researchers at the time.
Despite his successes, he never saw the impact of his work as he died on August 1, 1999 from a stroke. It is, nevertheless, undeniable that his contributions forever improved and changed the lives of many living with diabetes.
— Written by Michael Limmena