Professor Colin Dayan
(he/him)

BSc, MBChB, PhD, FRCP

Clinical Professor

Our research group has two sections:

Immunotherapy of Type 1 Diabetes

Our group is committed to finding low-risk immunotherapies able to preserve beta cell function in type 1 diabetes and introduce these therapies into clinic care. We collaborate with colleagues across the UK in the Type 1 Diabetes Immunotherapy Consortium to conduct clinical trials in adults and children with new-onset type 1 diabetes and develop new approaches to beta cell preservation (www.type1diabetesresearch.org.uk). Studies range from first-in-man to phase III. We have established an adaptive platform trial (T1D-Plus) to test combinations of therapies. In this area we work closely with partners including Diabetes UK, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF/Breakthrough T1D), Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Diabetes Research Unit Wales, SAIL. We are developing suitable outcome markers and a Masterprotocol for beta cell protection studies in early stage (stage 1 or 2) pre-clinical diabetes to accelerate the development of therapies that delay or prevent the need for insulin.

Thyroid Research Group

The Cardiff Thyroid Research Group has been at forefront of thyroid research for over 25 years with the work of many colleagues including Reg Hall, John Lazarus and Marian Ludgate. Our current focus is on Thyroid Eye Disease (Graves' Orbitopathy, GO) and the mechanisms underlying this disfiguring and distressing condition including retro-orbital pre-adipocyte function and the effects of the microbiome. We also work closely with ophthalmology colleagues and as part of TEAMeD and the EUGOGO group to conduct clinical studies to improve therapies and implement measures to improve outcomes (www.btf-thyroid.org/projects/teamed/332-teamed-5).

The Thyroid Research Group also conducts large scale epidemiological, genetic and data linkage studies to define the effects of changes in thyroid hormone levels across the population, to study the effects of thyroid hormone replacement and the long-term outcomes of thyroid disease including thyroid disease in pregnancy.

Scientific contributions of our research group include:

First to clone and define antigen specific T cells from the target organ in Graves disease, demonstrating a highly focused but multi-antigenic response
First large RCT of diet vs diet and exercise in new-onset type 2 diabetes – indicating that diet alone is as effective as diet and exercise for glycaemic control and weight reduction
Set up of the UK Type 1 Diabetes Immunotherapy Consortium to coordinate immunotherapy trials in new-onset type 1 diabetes across the UK: increased recruitment into trials 10-fold; two multicenter studies fully recruited to date and to time/ahead of time with 4 in set-up.
Demonstration of the safety and potential for efficacy of peptide based immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes in man including two first-in-man studies.
Development of novel platforms for antigen specific immunotherapy and monitoring in type 1 diabetes including direct lymph node sampling in humans and the use of Platform Adaptive Trials.
First randomised trial evidence that the Th17 T cell pathway is relevant to Type 1 Diabetes
Development of data-linkage cohorts with SAIL (Farr Institute) covering subjects with thyroid disease and all children in Wales with type 1 diabetes (Brecon cohort): demonstration that educational outcomes in Type 1 Diabetes are associated with blood glucose levels.
Description of the genetic architecture underlying thyroid function using next generation sequencing and its application in Mendelian Randomisation to demonstrate an effect of fat mass on circulating T3 levels in children.

Date
Type

2006

Fu, J. F., Dong, G. P., Liang, L., Jiang, Y. J., Chen, L. Q. and Dayan, C. M. 2006. Early activation of the inhibin B/FSH axis in obese Tanner stage G1PH1 boys. Clinical Endocrinology -Oxford- 65(3), pp. 327-332. (10.1111/j.1365-2265.2006.02597.x)
Saravanan, P., Visser, T. J. and Dayan, C. M. 2006. Psychological well-being correlates with free thyroxine but not free 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine levels in patients on thyroid hormone replacement. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 91(9), pp. 3389-3392. (10.1210/jc.2006-0414)
Creed, T. J., Probert, C. S. J., Norman, M. N., Moorghen, M., Shepherd, N. A., Hearing, S. D. and Dayan, C. M. 2006. Basiliximab for the treatment of steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis: further experience in moderate and severe disease. Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 23(10), pp. 1435-1442. (10.1111/j.1365-2036.2006.02904.x)

2005

Saravanan, P., Simmons, D. J., Greenwood, R., Peters, T. J. and Dayan, C. M. 2005. Partial substitution of Thyroxine (T4) with Tri-Iodothyronine in patients on T4Replacement therapy: results of a large community-based randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 90(2), pp. 805-812. (10.1210/jc.2004-1672)

2004

Arif, S. et al. 2004. Autoreactive T cell responses show proinflammatory polarization in diabetes but a regulatory phenotype in health. The Journal of Clinical Investigation 113(3), pp. 451-463. (10.1172/JCI19585)
Narendran, P., Elsegood, K., Leech, N. J., Macindoe, W. M., Boons, G. and Dayan, C. M. 2004. Dendritic cell-based assays, but not mannosylation of antigen, improves detection of T-cell responses to proinsulin in type 1 diabetes. Immunology 111(4), pp. 422-429. (10.1111/j.1365-2567.2004.01825.x)
Lindley, S., Dayan, C. M., Bishop, A., Roep, B. O., Peakman, M. and Tree, T. I. M. 2004. Defective suppressor function in CD4+CD25+ T-cells from patients with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes 54(1), pp. 92-99. (10.2337/diabetes.54.1.92)

2003

Finucane, K., Ambrey, P., Narayan, S., Archer, C. B. and Dayan, C. M. 2003. Insulin injection abscesses caused by Mycobacterium chelonae [letter]. Diabetes Care 26(8), pp. 2483-2484. (10.2337/diacare.26.8.2483)
Dayan, C. M. 2003. Misconceptions in thyroid eye disease. Practitioner 247(1648), pp. 576-580.
Narendran, P., Williams, A. J., Elsegood, K., Leech, N. J. and Dayan, C. M. 2003. Humoral and cellular immune responses to proinsulin in adults with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews 19(1), pp. 52-59. (10.1002/dmrr.332)
Creed, T. J. et al. 2003. Basiliximab (anti-CD25) in combination with steroids may be an effective new treatment for steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis. Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics 18(1), pp. 65-75. (10.1046/j.1365-2036.2003.01639.x)
Dayan, C. M. 2003. Human monoclonal thyroid-stimulating autoantibody: how useful is a holy grail?. The Lancet 362(9378), pp. 92-93. (10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13893-7)
Baker, C., Richards, L. J., Dayan, C. M. and Jessop, D. S. 2003. Corticotropin-releasing hormone immunoreactivity in human T and B cells and macrophages: colocalization with arginine vasopressin. Journal of Neuroendocrinology 15(11), pp. 1070-1074. (10.1046/j.1365-2826.2003.01099.x)

2002

Dayan, C. M., Saravanan, P. and Bayly, G. 2002. Whose normal thyroid function is better—yours or mine?. The Lancet 360(9330), pp. 353-354. (10.1016/S0140-6736(02)09602-2)
Varela-Calvino, R., Ellis, R., Sgarbi, G., Dayan, C. M. and Peakman, M. 2002. Characterization of the T-cell response to coxsackievirus B4: evidence that effector memory cells predominate in patients with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes 51(6), pp. 1745-1753. (10.2337/diabetes.51.6.1745)
Lambert, A. P., Hunt, M. A., Day, A. P., Bayly, G. R. and Dayan, C. M. 2002. Reproducibility of individualized coronary heart disease risk calculations in patients with diabetes mellitus. Diabetic Medicine 19(6), pp. 514-517. (10.1046/j.1464-5491.2002.00687.x)
Saravanan, P., Chau, W., Roberts, N., Vedhara, K., Greenwood, R. and Dayan, C. M. 2002. Psychological well-being in patients on ‘adequate’ doses of l-thyroxine: results of a large, controlled community-based questionnaire study. Clinical Endocrinology 57(5), pp. 577-585. (10.1046/j.1365-2265.2002.01654.x)
Dayan, C. M. and Lightman, S. A. 2002. Pharmacotherapeutics and the endocrine system: blocking, replacing and exploiting nature's magic bullets. Current Opinion in Pharmacology 2(6), pp. 691-693. (10.1016/S1471-4892(02)00223-0)

2001

Dayan, C. M. 2001. Stressful life events and Graves' disease revisited [editorial]. Clinical Endocrinology 55(1), pp. 13-14. (10.1046/j.1365-2265.2001.01289.x)
Saravanan, P. and Dayan, C. M. 2001. Thyroid autoantibodies [review]. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America 30(2), pp. 315-337.
Dayan, C. M. 2001. Interpretation of thyroid function tests. The Lancet 357(9256), pp. 619-624. (10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04060-5)
Peakman, M. and Dayan, C. M. 2001. Antigen-specific immunotherapy for autoimmune disease: fighting fire with fire?. Immunology 104(4), pp. 361-366. (10.1046/j.1365-2567.2001.01335.x)
Varela-Calvino, R., Sgarbi, G., Wedderburn, L. R., Dayan, C. M., Tremble, J. and Peakman, M. 2001. T Cell activation by coxsackievirus B4 antigens in type 1 diabetes mellitus: evidence for selective TCR V usage without superantigenic activity. The Journal of Immunology 167(6), pp. 3513-3520. (10.4049/jimmunol.167.6.3513)

2000

Walsh, J. P. and Dayan, C. M. 2000. Role of biochemical assessment in management of corticosteroid withdrawal [review]. Annals of Clinical Biochemistry 37(3), pp. 279-288. (10.1258/0004563001899410)
Hearing, S. D., Probert, C., Norman, M. and Dayan, C. M. 2000. Lymphocyte steroid sensitivity (LSS) in remission and outcome of steroid therapy for severe ulcerative colitis (UC). Gastroenterology 118(4), pp. A791. (10.1016/s0016-5085(00)85306-8)
Maile, R., Elsegood, K. A., Harding, T. C., Uney, J. B., Stewart, C. E., Banting, G. and Dayan, C. M. 2000. Effective formation of major histocompatibility complex class II-peptide complexes from endogenous antigen by thyroid epithelial cells. Immunology 99(3), pp. 367-374. (10.1046/j.1365-2567.2000.00958.x)

1999

Hearing, S. D., Norman, M., Smyth, C., Foy, C. and Dayan, C. M. 1999. Wide variation in lymphocyte steroid sensitivity among healthy human volunteera. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 84(11), pp. 4149-4154. (10.1210/jc.84.11.4149)
Ahlquist, J., Walsh, J. P. and Dayan, C. M. 1999. Radioiodine and thyroid eye disease - Reply. BMJ 319(7217), pp. 1133-1133. (10.1136/bmj.319.7217.1133a)
Hearing, S. D., Norman, M., Probert, C. S., Haslam, N. and Dayan, C. M. 1999. Predicting therapeutic outcome in severe ulcerative colitis by measuring in vitro steroid sensitivity of proliferating peripheral blood lymphocytes. Gut 45(3), pp. 382-388. (10.1136/gut.45.3.382)
Walsh, J. P., Dayan, C. M. and Potts, M. J. 1999. Radioiodine and thyroid eye disease - Use with caution. BMJ 319(7202), pp. 68-69. (10.1136/bmj.319.7202.68)
Hearing, S. D., Norman, M. and Dayan, C. M. 1999. In vitro measurement of lymphocyte steroid sensitivity: lack of agreement between whole blood culture and separated lymphocyte culture. Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology 21(1), pp. 41-53. (10.3109/08923979909016393)

1998

Leech, N. J. and Dayan, C. M. 1998. Controversies in the management of Graves' disease [review]. Clinical Endocrinology -Oxford- 49(3), pp. 273-280. (10.1046/j.1365-2265.1998.00558.x)

1997

Jessop, D. S., Douthwaite, J. A., Conde, G. L., Lightman, S. L., Dayan, C. M. and Harbuz, M. S. 1997. Effects of Acute Stress or Centrally Injected Interleukin-1beta on Neuropeptide Expression in the Immune System. Stress -Basel- 2(2), pp. 133-144. (10.3109/10253899709014744)
Jessop, D. S., Harbuz, M. S., Snelson, C. L., Dayan, C. M. and Lightman, S. L. 1997. An antisense oligodeoxynucleotide complementary to corticotropin-releasing hormone mRNA inhibits rat splenocyte proliferation in vitro. Journal of Neuroimmunology 75(1-2), pp. 135-140. (10.1016/s0165-5728(97)00011-8)
Dayan, C. M., Elsegood, K. A. and Maile, R. 1997. FasL expression on epithelial cells: the Bottazzo-Feldman hypothesis revisited [review]. Immunology Today 18(5), pp. 203. (10.1016/s0167-5699(97)81661-1)
Maile, R., Elsegood, K. A. and Dayan, C. M. 1997. Functionality of inducible major histocompatibility class II expression by specialised non-lymphoid cells. Biochemical Society Transactions 25(2), pp. 318S.

1996

Dayan, C. M. and Daniels, G. 1996. Chronic autoimmune thyroiditis [review]. New England Journal of Medicine 335(2), pp. 99-107. (10.1056/nejm199610033351425)
Dayan, C. M. et al. 1996. Biochemical cure of recurrent acromegaly by resection of cervical spinal canal metastases. Clinical Endocrinology -Oxford- 44(5), pp. 597-602. (10.1046/j.1365-2265.1996.685507.x)
Quaratino, S., Feldmann, M., Dayan, C. M., Acuto, O. and Londei, M. 1996. Human self-reactive T cell clones expressing identical T cell receptor beta chains differ in their ability to recognize a cryptic self-epitope. Journal of Experimental Medicine 183(2), pp. 349-358. (10.1084/jem.183.2.349)

1995

Dayan, C. M. and Jackson, M. 1995. The 1995 Advanced Medicine Conference [congress]. Clinical Medicine - London 29(4), pp. 344-348.
Mullins, R. J., Cohen, S. B., Webb, L. M., Chernajovsky, Y., Dayan, C. M., Londei, M. and Feldmann, M. 1995. Identification of thyroid stimulating hormone receptor-specific T cells in Graves' disease thyroid using autoantigen-transfected Epstein-Barr virus-transformed B cell lines. The Journal of Clinical Investigation 96(1), pp. 30-37. (10.1172/jci118034)
Wong, N. A., Dayan, C. M., Virjee, J. and Heaton, K. W. 1995. Acute respiratory distress secondary to Morgagni diaphragmatic herniation in an adult. Postgraduate Medical Journal -London- 71(831), pp. 39-41. (10.1136/pgmj.71.831.39)

1994

Mullins, R. J., Chernajovsky, Y., Dayan, C. M., Londei, M. and Feldmann, M. 1994. Transfection of thyroid autoantigens into EBV-transformed B cell lines. recognition by Graves' disease thyroid T cells. The Journal of Immunology 152(11), pp. 5572-5580.

1993

Dayan, C. M., Chu, N. R., Londei, M., Rapoport, B. and Feldmann, M. 1993. T cells involved in human autoimmune disease are resistant to tolerance induction. The Journal of Immunology 151(3), pp. 1606-1613.
Dayan, C. M. 1993. Provider power: an important lesson from the US health care market. Clinical Medicine 27(3), pp. 238-241.
Lehmann, P. V., Sercarz, E. E., Forsthuber, T., Dayan, C. . M. and Gammon, G. 1993. Determinant spreading and the dynamics of the autoimmune T-cell repertoire [review]. Immunology Today 14(5), pp. 203-208. (10.1016/0167-5699(93)90163-f)
Quaratino, S., Dayan, C. M., Feldmann, M. and Londei, M. 1993. Definition of the tri-molecular complex of human thyroid peroxidase specific autoreactive t-cell clones. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry 17(Supp C), pp. 72-72.

1992

Feldmann, M., Dayan, C. M., Grubeck-loebenstein, B., Rapoport, B. and Londei, M. 1992. Mechanism of Graves thyroiditis: implications for concepts and therapy of autoimmunity [Review]. International Reviews of Immunology 9(2), pp. 91-106. (10.3109/08830189209061785)
Dayan, C. M., Feldmann, M., Rapoport, B. and Londei, M. 1992. Autoimmune thyroiditis and targeted anti-T cell immunotherapy in man [review]. Autoimmunity 11(3), pp. 189-198. (10.3109/08916939209035154)

1991

Dayan, C. M., Londei, M., Corcoran, A., Grubeck-Loebenstein, B., James, R. F., Rapoport, B. and Feldmann, M. 1991. Autoantigen recognition by thyroid-infiltrating T cells in Graves disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 88(16), pp. 7415-7419. (10.1073/pnas.88.16.7415)

1990

Zheng, R. Q., Abney, E. R., Grubeck-Loebenstein, B., Dayan, C. M., Maini, R. N. and Fledmann, M. 1990. Expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and lymphocyte function-associated antigen-3 on human thyroid epithelial cells in Graves' and Hashimoto's diseases. Journal of Autoimmunity 3(6), pp. 727-736. (10.1016/s0896-8411(05)80039-3)

Colin Dayan, MA MBBS, FRCP, PhD – biographical details.

Professor of Clinical Diabetes and Metabolism, Cardiff University School of Medicine.

Colin Dayan trained in medicine at University College, Oxford, and Guy's and Charing Cross Hospitals in London, UK before obtaining a PhD in the cellular immunology of Graves' Disease in Laboratory of Marc Feldmann. He then spent a year as an endocrine fellow at the Massachussetts General Hospital in Boston, USA before completing his specialist training in diabetes and endocrinology as a Lecturer in Bristol. He became a consultant senior lecturer in medicine (diabetes/endocrinology) at the University of Bristol in 1995 and Head of Clinical Research at the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology in Bristol in 2002. In 2010, he was appointed to the Chair of Clinical Diabetes and Metabolism and Head of Section at Cardiff University School of Medicine. He served as Director of the Institute of Molecular and Experimental Medicine in 2011 – 2015 and was appointed at Cardiff Joint Research Office Director in 2021. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Univesity of Oxford and a Fellow of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland.

He has a long established interest in translational research in the immunopathology of type 1 diabetes (T1D). He has been Chief Investigator on more than 15 phase I-III clinical trials of immunotherapies to preserve beta cell function (T1D) and leads the UK T1D Research Consortium clinical trials network with 30 clinical sites across the UK. He supported the application to the FDA for the first licensed Immunotherapy for T1D in 2022. He was awarded the Sir Derrick Melville Dunlop Medal from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 2019 and the JDRF International/Breakthrough T1D David Rumbough prize in 2024.

He also has research interests in thyroid disease which include thyroid autoimmunity, thyroid hormone replacement and bioavailability, genetic epidemiology as applied to population variation in thyroid hormone bioavailability and thyroid eye disease. He became secretary of the European Thyroid Association in 2013 and chairs the UK Thyroid Eye Disease Amsterdam Implementation Group.

From 2016-2022 he was secretary/treasurer of the Association of Physicians and since 2019 has been the Clinical Research Secretary of the British Society of Immunology.

Honours and awards

2024 David Rumbough Prize, JDRF International /Breakthrough T1D (New York)
2019 Sir Derrick Melville Dunlop Medal, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
2019 Peter Lauberg Prize, Danish Thyroid Society

Professional memberships

Diabetes UK
Society for Endocrinology
British Society for Immunology
Immunology of Diabetes Society
British Thyroid Association
European Thyroid Association
European Association for the Study of Diabetes
Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland

Academic positions

Cardiff Joint Research Office Director
Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Professor of Clinical Diabetes and Metabolism, Cardiff University

Contact Details

DayanCM@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 29207 42182

Psoriasis drug shows promise for treating childhood diabetes

Professor Colin Dayan (he/him) BSc, MBChB, PhD, FRCP

Overview

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

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