Staff Profile

Alison Barnes is an HCPC Registered Dietitian with a particular interest in diabetes and weight management. She is a Senior Research Associate for the My Hypo Compass programme, part of the multinational NIHR funded CLEAR study. Alison was the lead Research Dietitian on Newcastle University's ground breaking research studies into remission of Type 2 diabetes using low calorie diets, including the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) which was published in The Lancet scientific journal in 2018. This research is now being adopted as a diabetes treatment by the NHS in England and Scotland. Alison has spoken at numerous national and international conferences about the research, including presenting the main study outcomes at the Diabetes UK conference in 2019 the American Diabetes Association Annual Scientific Sessions in June 2020, and presented results of the ReTUNE study at the 2025 Diabetes UK conference. Most recently she was an invited speaker at the 2025 IDF World Diabetes Congress in Bangkok.

Alison is Lead Specialist Dietitian for Waiting Well Diabetes, an NHS service operated across three North East Trusts which supports people with diabetes to optimise their blood glucose levels ahead of elective surgery, aiming to reduce surgical risks, improve outcomes, and prevent surgeries being delayed or cancelled because of uncontrolled diabetes. The team won the Diabetes UK Nursing and Allied Health Professional award at the Diabetes UK conference in 2025.

Alison is a graduate of the Diabetes UK Clinical Champions leadership programme, an invited judge for the annual Sanofi Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes Awards and has helped advise NHS England on development of their forthcoming national pilot programme using low calorie diets for 5000 people currently living with Type 2 diabetes.  

Alison has a first class BSc (Hons) in Human Nutrition from Northumbria University, a Postgraduate Diploma in Dietetics from Leeds Metropolitan University. and a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Newcastle University.

The Diabetes remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT): Since recruitment in April 2014 Alison has worked as the lead dietitian for the 2 year RCT and ongoing follow up phase of this groundbreaking trial. Using a low calorie diet to help participants achiebe significant weight loss and keep it off, just under half of participants were in diabetes remission (blood sugar levels below the diabetes range with no medication) at 12 months. The study is funded by Diabetes UK and was awarded their largest ever research grant of £2.4million. Find information about the study and results here

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal/#publicinformation

ReTUNE study (ongoing) investigating the effect of weight loss on Type 2 diabetes for individuals who are diagnosed with this type of diabetes at a lower Body Mass Index (BMI)

WELLBABE (completed) investigating the effect of a food-based calorie reduced diet in late pregnancy for women with Gestational Diabetes (diabetes in pregnancy)

Alison delivers teaching and lectures to Newcastle University's MRes Diabetes programme and the undergraduate Biomedical Sciences Chronic Disease module.

• Articles

  • Powell K, Barnes A, Bambra C, Lewis S, Townsend A, Ponsford R, McGill R, Orton L, Halliday E, Salway S, Whitehead M, Popay J. Power, control, communities and health inequalities III: participatory spaces - an English case. Health Promotion International 2021, 36(5), 1264-1274.
  • Zhyzhneuskaya SV, Al-Mrabeh A, Peters C, Barnes AC, Aribisala B, Hollingsworth KG, McConnachie A, Sattar N, Lean MEJ, Taylor R. Time course of normalisation of functional beta cell capacity in DiRECT after weight loss in type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 2020, 43(4), 813-820.
  • Al-Mrabeh A, Zhyzhneuskaya SV, Peters C, Barnes AC, Melhem S, Jesuthasan A, Aribasala B, Hollingsworth KG, Lietz G, Mathers JC, Sattar N, Lean MEJ, Taylor R. Hepatic Lipoprotein Export and Remission of Human Type 2 Diabetes after Weight Loss. Cell Metabolism 2020, 31(2), 233-249.
  • Lewis S, Bambra C, Powell K, Barnes A, Townsend A, Ponsford R, McGill R, Orton L, Halliday E, Salway S, Whitehead M, Popay J. Reframing "participation" and "inclusion" in public health policy and practice to address health inequalities: evidence from a major resident-led neighbourhood improvement initiative. Health and Social Care in the Community 2019, 27(1), 199-206.
  • Lean MEJ, Leslie WS, Barnes AC, Brosnahan N, Thom G, McCombie L, Peters C, Zhyzhneuskaya S, Al-Mrabeh A, Hollingsworth KG, Rodrigues AM, Rehackova L, Adamson AJ, Sniehotta FF, Mathers JC, Ross HM, McIlvenna Y, Welsh P, Kean S, Ford I, McConnachie A, Messow CM, Sattar N, Taylor R. Durability of a primary care-led weight-management intervention for remission of type 2 diabetes: 2-year results of the DiRECT open-label, cluster-randomised trial. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology 2019, 7(5), 344-355.
  • McParlin C, Hodson K, Barnes AC, Taylor R, Robson SC, Araujo-Soares V. Views, experience and adherence of pregnant women participating in a study of weight loss in gestational diabetes (WELLBABE). Diabetic Medicine 2018, 36(2), 195-202.
  • Taylor R, Al-Mrabeh A, Zhyzhneuskaya S, Peters C, Barnes AC, Aribisala BS, Hollingsworth KG, Mathers JC, Sattar N, Lean MEJ. Remission of Human Type 2 Diabetes Requires Decrease in Liver and Pancreas Fat Content but Is Dependent upon Capacity for β Cell Recovery. Cell Metabolism 2018, 28(4), 547-556.
  • Lean MEJ, Leslie WS, Barnes AC, Brosnahan N, Thom G, McCombie L, Peters C, Zhyzhneuskaya S, Al-Mrabeh A, Hollingsworth KG, Rodrigues AM, Rehackova L, Adamson AJ, Sniehotta FF, Mathers JC, Ross HM, McIlvenna Y, Stefanetti R, Trenell MI, Welsh P, Kean S, Ford I, McConnachie A, Sattar N, Taylor R. Primary care-led weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (DiRECT): an open-label, cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet 2018, 391(10120), 541-551.
  • Taylor R, Leslie WS, Barnes AC, Brosnahan N, Thom G, McCombie L, Sattar N, Welsh P, Peters C, Zhyzhneuskaya S, Hollingsworth KG, AlMrabeh A, Rodrigues AM, Rehackova L, Adamson AJ, Sniehotta FF, Mathers JC, Ross HM, McIlvenna Y, Kean S, Ford I, McConachie A, Lean MEJ. Clinical and metabolic features of the randomised controlled Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) cohort. Diabetologia 2018, 61(3), 589-598.
  • Hodson K, Dalla Man C, Smith FE, Barnes A, McParlin C, Cobelli C, Robson SC, Araújo-Soares V, Taylor R. Liver triacylglycerol content and gestational diabetes: effects of moderate energy restriction. Diabetologia 2017, 60(2), 306-313.
  • Leslie WS, Ford I, Sattar N, Hollingsworth KG, Adamson A, Sniehotta FF, McCombie L, Brosnahan N, Ross H, Mathers JC, Peters C, Thom G, Barnes A, Kean S, McIlvenna Y, Rodrigues A, Rehackova L, Zhyzhneuskaya S, Taylor R, Lean MEJ. The Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT): protocol for a cluster randomised trial. BMC Family Practice 2016, 17, 20.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

  • Leslie W, Lean M, Brosnahan N, Barnes A, Thom G, Sattar N, McCombie L, Ross H, Taylor R. Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT): protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial in primary care. In: Diabetes UK Professional Conference 2016. 2016, Glasgow: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

• Reviews

  • Taylor R, Barnes A. Can type 2 diabetes be reversed and how can this best be achieved? James Lind Alliance research priority number one. Diabetic Medicine 2019, 36(3), 308-315.
  • Taylor R, Barnes AC. Translating aetiological insight into sustainable management of type 2 diabetes. Diabetologia 2018, 61(2), 273-283.