Tim McDonald

About me:

Professor Tim McDonald is the Clinical Director and Consultant Clinical Scientist of the Blood Sciences Laboratories at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. He holds an NIHR Senior Clinical Lecturer fellowship

His broad research interest is in the use of laboratory diagnostics to improve treatment outcomes and differential diagnosis. He has specific interests in diabetes and gastroenterology.

Dr McDonald's research interest involve using biomarkers to identify patients with monogenic forms of diabetes. They have developed clinical predication models to help clinicians identify patients with rare genetic causes of diabetes. The advantage being that these patients can often be treated with tablets, rather than insulin injections.

Assessment of endogenous insulin production is another area of active research. They have investigated the possibility of measuring C-peptide in urine rather than in a blood sample, identifying the clinical utility and optimal storage parameters that enable measurement from a posted urine sample. The measurement of urinary C-peptide/Creatinine ratio (UCPCR) is now provided as a routine NHS pathology test to assess endogenous insulin secretion and is requested by over 100nclinical laboratories in the UK.

In 2012, He was awarded the Department of Health’s Young Healthcare Scientist of the year award for translational research and the ACB professors prize in 2016.

BSc, PgC, MSc, PhD, FRCPath