Andrew Gordon Cudworth (16 March 1939 – 11 October 1982) was an English

medical research Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as health research, refers to the process of using scientific methods with the aim to produce knowledge about human diseases, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the promotion of ...

er who specialised in

immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...

and

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

. He discovered the genetic basis of childhood diabetes and popularised the classification of diabetes into type 1 and type 2.

Biography

Andrew Cudworth was born in 1939 and graduated from the

University of Liverpool School of Medicine The University of Liverpool School of Medicine is a medical school located in Liverpool, United Kingdom and a part of the University of Liverpool. It is one of the largest medical schools in the UK, and in 1903 became one of the first to be inc ...

in 1963. He joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

as a medical officer after his graduation, serving for five years and earning the rank of major. He commenced physician training in Liverpool in 1971. He published his first paper, about

, in 1972; his second paper, published in 1972, was a case report on a patient with

. His scientific interest in diabetes and immunology led him to discover soon afterwards that the more severe form of diabetes, which necessitated

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...

and usually occurred in children, was linked to a specific genetic marker, and could be detected on a blood test. Recognising the difference between juvenile-onset, insulin-dependent diabetes and mature-onset, non-insulin-dependent diabetes, Cudworth began using the terminology of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in 1976. The classification of diabetes into type 1 and type 2 was first used by

Philip Hugh-Jones Philip Hugh-Jones Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, FRCP (22 August 1917 – 1 June 2010) was a British respiratory physician and Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), Medical Research Council (MRC) researcher who during the Second ...

in a 1955 paper, but the terminology was revived and popularised by Cudworth. This remains the common terminology to differentiate the two forms of diabetes mellitus. Previously, the classification of diabetes was based on the age of onset – either juvenile or mature – whereas Cudworth's classification system was based on genetics. In 1977, Cudworth was appointed a consultant physician at St Bartholomew's and

Hackney Hospital Homerton University Hospital is a teaching hospital in Homerton in the London Borough of Hackney. It is managed by Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital has its origins in the Homerton Fever Hospital, which opened at t ...

s in London, where he also lectured at

St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal University of L ...

. He established the diabetic service at Hackney Hospital and collaborated with David J. Galton in the diabetic clinic at Barts. He became editor-in-chief of the international journal '' Diabetologia'' in 1980. He died in 1982 from a

glioma A glioma is a type of primary tumor that starts in the glial cells of the brain or spinal cord. They are malignant but some are extremely slow to develop. Gliomas comprise about 30% of all brain and central nervous system tumors and 80% of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cudworth, Andrew 1939 births 1982 deaths Medical doctors from Liverpool British diabetologists English medical researchers Academics of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital Alumni of the University of Liverpool