Diabetes Insights - Breakthroughs and Innovators

In this episode, a cardiologist, an epidemiologist and a diabetologist come together to discuss the deep and evolving links between diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The conversation explores heart failure as a common but often under-recognized complication of diabetes, how cardiovascular risk begins even before type 2 diabetes develops, and why modern therapies increasingly target multiple organs at once. The speakers highlight the importance of early detection, collaboration across specialties, and prevention as populations age and chronic disease patterns shift.

In this episode, Prof. Frédéric Gachon and Prof. Olga Pivovarova-Ramich explore how the timing of eating and exercise influences metabolism and diabetes risk. Drawing on recent research in chronobiology, they discuss circadian rhythms, chronotype, late-night eating, intermittent fasting, and how aligning daily behaviours with our internal clocks may improve metabolic health and insulin sensitivity.

Prof. Gachon and and Prof. Pivovarova-Ramich explore how eating late or at the wrong time disrupts your body’s rhythm, and how different chronotypes (early risers vs night owls) respond to meal timing. They also touch on the growing popularity of intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating, as well as exercise timing and its connection to performance and sleep.

Listen in now to understand how the timing of diet and exercise can improve health outcomes, especially for individuals living with diabetes.

In this weeks episode of Diabetes Insights - Breakthroughs and Innovators, experts discuss the highly anticipated SURPASS CVOT trial, a head-to-head cardiovascular outcomes study comparing tirzepatide 15 mg weekly with dulaglutide 1.5 mg weekly in people with type 2 diabetes. With over 13,000 participants, the trial demonstrates that tirzepatide provides equivalent cardioprotective benefits to dulaglutide, confirming its role in improving both glycaemic control and cardiovascular outcomes.

EASD TV Host Vivienne Parry sits with Prof. Tina Vilsbøll (EASD Honorary Secretary) and Prof. Hertzel Gerstein (EASD Independent Advisor and McMaster University) to unpack the trial’s implications for clinical practice, highlighting how outcomes trials like this inform personalised medicine, integrate care between diabetologists and cardiologists, and generate new hypotheses in areas such as liver disease, cognitive function, and obesity management. This episode underscores the growing importance of transdisciplinary approaches in diabetes care, where therapies can target multiple complications simultaneously.

Join us to understand how outcomes trials like SURPASS-CVOT are shaping guidelines, expanding treatment options, and improving care for people living with type 2 diabetes worldwide.

In our first episode of 2026, Prof. Hindrik Mulder, Editor-in-Chief of Diabetologia, offers a journal’s-eye view of the most exciting and challenging developments in diabetes research today.

Drawing on his unique overview of submissions from across the global research community, prof. Mulder discusses emerging breakthroughs such as hypoimmune stem cell-based therapies that are transforming from theoretical possibilities into scalable, off-the-shelf treatments for diabetes. Prof. Mulder discusses how these innovations could revolutionise diabetes care by overcoming the historical barriers of islet transplantation.

We further explore Diabetologia's special 2025 issue on "Opportunities and Challenges in Diabetes," which tackles the critical issues of healthcare disparity, access, and equity. Prof. Mulder passionately addresses why diversity in research is essential to understanding disease heterogeneity and why the scientific community must continue advocating for inclusive research despite political headwinds.

Learn about the journal's innovative approach to incorporating patient perspectives in research design, the appointment of a dedicated DEI editor, and the exciting launch of Metabologia - Diabetologia's new sister journal - covering the expanding landscape of metabolic disorders.

This conversation reminds us that embracing complexity and acknowledging what we don't know is fundamental to advancing diabetes science.

In this episode, Dr. Tamara Hannon (Indiana University Health) and Prof. Martin Wabitsch (Universtätsklinikum Ulm) unpack the findings of the SURPASS-PEDS trial - the first study to evaluate the dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist tirzepatide in adolescents with type 2 diabetes.

With youth-onset type 2 diabetes rising sharply across the US and Europe, and with young people experiencing faster beta-cell decline, more severe obesity, and greater socioeconomic burdens, the need for effective therapies has never been greater. They discuss why adolescent disease differs fundamentally from adult type 2 diabetes, why weight-loss expectations cannot be compared across age groups, and how tirzepatide not only reduces HbA1c but also halts the extreme weight-gain velocity commonly seen in this population.

They also reflect on what early intervention could mean for long-term metabolic health, how guidelines may evolve, and how better treatment options could transform quality of life for young people living with type 2 diabetes.

This conversation highlights why youth-onset type 2 diabetes is fundamentally different from adult disease, why weight loss behaves differently in children, and how early intervention could change the life course for young people at high risk of long-term complications.