Professor Rory McCrimmon - Biography

Rory McCrimmon trained at the University of Edinburgh and completed his clinical and speciality training in the South-East of Scotland. In 2002, he joined the faculty at Yale University, USA, to investigate why people with type 1 are very prone to developing low glucose (Hypoglycaemia). He returned to Scotland in 2009 to establish his laboratory at the University of Dundee, where he is currently Dean of Medicine, Professor of Experimental Diabetes and Metabolism and Honorary Consultant. He was awarded the 2015 RD Lawrence Lecture and 2022 Dorothy Hodgkin Lecture by Diabetes UK for his research in Hypoglycaemia, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Rory has served on the Editorial Boards of Diabetologia, Diabetes, Diabetes Care and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. He has been a panel member for Medical Research Council Population and Systems Medicine Board, Diabetes UK Clinical Studies Group Management Committee; Diabetes UK, Intermediate Clinical Fellowships Panel; Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Scientific Review Boards PEAK Programme; he is an executive member of the International Hypoglycaemia Study Group and a non-executive member of the NHS Tayside Health Board.

He is currently also Lead Clinician for the Scottish Diabetes Research Network (Diabetes | NHS Research Scotland | NHS Research Scotland) which supports the setup and delivery of clinical and epidemiological research across Scotland. Epidemiological research is carried out using SCI-Diabetes (Scottish Care Information - Diabetes), which tracks real-time clinical information on all 300,000 people with type I and type II Diabetes in Scotland. The Diabetes Research Register is directly linked to Sci-Diabetes and has over 16,000 patients who have consented to be part of an electronic database of patients who have agreed to be contacted about research for which they are eligible.

Research

The focus of his translational research programme is to define the fundamental mechanisms by which the brain detects low glucose levels (hypoglycaemia) and how these mechanisms are disrupted in type 1 diabetes in response to repeated episodes of hypoglycaemia. Key findings include, establishing key roles for AMP-activated protein kinase and the ATP-sensitive potassium channel in the detection of hypoglycaemia by the brain, and in establishing that impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia, a clinical condition that affects up to 25% of all people with type 1 diabetes, develops as a result of a specialised form of memory called Habituation. He is also active in clinical trial research and has served as the UK Chief Investigator in a number of multi-centre international clinical trials.

Teaching

Primary teaching experience is in academic mentoring and supervision of clinicians, post-graduates and undergraduate students. In this capacity, I have served as Programme Lead for the Academic Foundation Doctors in the Eastern Deanery, been a member of the Scottish Translational Medicine Training Initiative, and a Medical Research Council Clinical Fellowship Training and Career member Development Awards panel. Also, I have co-written the Chapter on Diabetes in Davidson’s Principles and Practice of Medicine (Editions 22 and 23), a textbook that has been read by over 2 million medical students since its first edition. As Interim Dean I jointly Chair the new ScotGEM post-graduate Entry Medical Programme with David Crossman, Dean of Medicine, St Andrew’s University and will visit Anglia Ruskin University regularly as it starts its new Medical School adopting the Dundee Curriculum.

International Lectures

• Cellular Consequences of Hypoglycemia, April 15-17, 2021. 100^th anniversary of the "Discovery of Insulin: A Scientific Celebration" meeting, Toronto,
• Obstacles and Barriers to Treatment and Prevention of Impaired Awareness of Hypoglycemia (IAH) and Counter-Regulatory Responses in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes, October, 2021. NDDK, Washington, Bethesda, USA
• Impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia: Rememberance of things past. Nov 7, 2020, European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology virtual conference
• Let’s talk hypoglycemia: an under-recognized unmet need in people on basal insulin, September 2020, Sanofi, European Association for the Study of Diabetes Virtual Conference
• IHSG Symposium: The clinical impact of hypoglycaemia, September 2020, European Association for the Study of Diabetes Virtual Conference
• SUSTAIN clinical programme, Efficacy of once-weekly semaglutide in the landscape of diabetes care, September 2020, BAMEAC GLP-1 Summit 2020 Webinar, Semaglutide: new kids on the block,
• Impact of CVOTs in clinical decision making, September 2020, BAMEAC GLP-1 Summit 2020 Webinar, GLP-1 receptor agonists in cardiometabolic care,
• Integrating once-weekly and oral semaglutide into current clinical practice, September 2020, Virtual GSEM, GLP-1 Diabetes
• Central Mechanisms of Hypoglycemia Awareness, June 2020, American Diabetes Association
• Characteristics of US patients with type 2 diabetes prescribed GLP-1RA + SGLT-2i in combination during 2018, June 2020, American Diabetes Association
• Niall O'Meara lecture - Irish Endocrine Society Lecture, Jan 2020 The Royal College of Physicians in Dublin
• S SUSTAIN 8: Outcomes and Implications. Dec 2019. International Diabetes Federation, South Korea
• GLT2 inhibitors for type 1 diabetes: clinical implications Sep 2019. European Association for the Study of Diabetes Barcelona, Spain
• Mechanisms of hypoglycaemia unawareness Sep 2019. European Association for the Study of Diabetes Barcelona, Spain
• Bringing (a little more) light to the dark side of insulin 14th Mar 2019, Yale University Scholars Day, New Haven, USA
• Impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia: Causes and Consequences 21st Nov 2018, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
• The future never looked so Bright: When medicine meets technology. DCV Forum 26/27th October 2018, Paris, France
• A combination approach: Targeting the right patients. 1st Oct 2018, European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Berlin, Germany
• Unified outcomes in diabetes management. European Diabetes Forum 30th Sept 2018, Berlin, Germany
• Hypoglycaemia: Forget about it! May 2018, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• What do clinicians need to know about hypoglycaemia? Dec 2017 Meet the expert. International Diabetes Federation, Abu Dhabi, UAE
• Impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia: New discoveries and treatments. Sept 2017 European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Lisbon, Portugal
• Clinical Inertia: Lessons from Scotland. Sept 2016, European Association for the Study of Diabetes Munich, Germany
• Exercise in Type 1 Diabetes: Sep 2016, European Association for the Study of Diabetes Munich, Germany
  Physiology of Exercise in Type 1 Diabetes. Apr 2016 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation PEAK program, Boston, US
• Impaired hypoglycaemia awareness: The habit of a lifetime. Feb 2016, Steno Diabetes Centre, Denmark
• Impaired hypoglycaemia awareness: The habit of a lifetime. Oct 2015, International Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes, Brisbane, Australia
• Cerebral adaption to recurrent hypoglycaemia. Mar 2015 Levine Symposium, San Diego, USA
• The Scylla and Charybdis of glucose control in Type 1 Diabetes. Aug 2014 Norwegian Diabetes Meeting, Oslo
• Hypoglycaemia: The study of stress, starvation and tolerance. Jan 2014, 3U Meeting, Dublin
• Diabetes and Dementia. Dec 2013 International Diabetes Federation, Melbourne, Australia
• The highs and lows of metabolic stress in type 1 diabetes. Oct 2013 International Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes, Gothenberg, Sweden
• Another piece of the jigsaw: How the brain regulates pancreatic endocrine function. Dec 2012 International Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes conference, Istanbul, Turkey
• Hypoglycaemia Tolerance: An adaptive response to repeated hypoglycaemia. Sep 2012 National Diabetes Symposium, Helsinki, Finland
• Hypoglycaemia and the brain: does age play and important role. Aug 2012 Lilly peaks and Valleys meeting, Santiago, Chile
• Hypoglycaemia and the brain: does age play and important role. May 2012 Lilly peaks and Valleys meeting, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Hypoglycaemia and the brain: Does age play and important role. Apr 2012 Lilly peaks and Valleys meeting, Amsterdam, Holland
• Mechanisms of hypoglycaemia sensing. Sept 2011 Diabetes Dialogue, Barcelona, Spain
• Central regulation of glucose homeostasis Oct 2010, FASEB, Kyoto, Japan
• Mechanisms Underlying Hypoglycemia Unawareness, Aug 2016 International Diabetes Federation, Cape Town, South Africa
• Mechanisms of Neuronal Glucose-Sensing, Jun 2016, American Diabetes Association Meeting, Washington, USA
• Role for AMP Kinase in Hypoglycemia Sensing. Se 2007 Hypoglycemia Congress, Perugia, Italy
• The BB Rat Turns Thirty: Lessons and Future Directions. Oct 2004, Ottowa, Canada

National Lectures

• Clinical Management of Hypoglycaemia, RCPE Symposium on Diabetes and Endocrinology, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Oct 2020
• Hypoglycaemia; the good, the bad and the ugly, University of Glasgow Guest Lecture Series, Oct 26, 2020
• Hypoglycaemia: A force of habit. Dec 2016 University of Exeter
• Impaired hypoglycaemia awareness. Nov 2015 National Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes Group, Birmingham
• The Sci is the limit. British Hypertension Society. Sept 2015 Stafford-on-Avon
• Old habits are hard to break: Lessons from the study of hypoglycaemia. March 2015 RD Lawrence Lecture, Diabetes UK, London, (Plenary Lecture)
• Inflammation and glucose sensing. March 2015 BHF Queen Margaret Institute, Edinburgh University
• The Unaware Neuron. May 2014 Institute if Metabolic Science, Aberdeen University,
• Getting excited about blood sugar: The brain and blood glucose control. April 2014 British Endocrine Society, Liverpool
• Hypoglycaemia Tolerance: An adaptive response to repeated hypoglycaemia. April 2014 Bristol University
• Hypoglycaemia: The study of stress, starvation and tolerance. March 2014 Scottish Study Group, Dunblane
• Hypoglycaemia: The study of stress, starvation and tolerance. March 2014 Diabetes UK, Liverpool
• Pre-conditioning and Hypoglycaemia. April 2014 University of Manchester
• Stress, starvation and Hypoglycaemia. March 2013 Institute of Metabolic Research, Cambridge University
• Central Mechanisms of hypoglycaemia awareness, March 2012 Diabetes UK Conference
• Hypoglycaemia in type 1 diabetes and the development of hypoglycaemia tolerance. Feb 2012 Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism
• Hypoglycaemia Tolerance. Nov 2010 Queens Medical Research Institute, Edinburgh
• Hypo or not to hypo, that is the question? Nov 2010 Scottish Study Group, Pitlochry
• Life as an Academic Physician. Oct 2010 Young Diabetologists Forum, Edinburgh, QMRI
• Hypoglycaemia Tolerance Sept 2010 Annual Paediatric Endocrinologists Meeting, Sterling
• Integrated pathways involved in glucosensing. March 2010 Diabetes UK, Liverpool
• Developments in Hypoglycaemia Research. March 2008 Diabetes UK Conference, Glasgow
• Hypoglycaemic Stress; Homeostasis Challenged. Oct 2007 Scottish Society for Experimental Medicine, Aberdeen