Investor Updates
Australian scientists make landmark insulin discovery
11 February 2013
Australian scientists, at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne, have made a landmark discovery about how insulin docks onto cells.
This discovery, which has been published in the prestigious international journal, Nature, could help in the development of improved types of insulin for the treatment of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
For more than twenty years scientists have been trying to find out how insulin binds to the insulin receptor and this is the first time that researchers have been able to capture the intricate way in which this happens. Binding of the receptor to cells is necessary for the cells to take up sugar from the blood as energy.
Associate Professor Mike Lawrence from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Structural Biology division said that understanding how insulin interacts with the insulin receptor is fundamental to the development of novel insulins for the treatment of diabetes.
‘Until now we have not been able to see how these molecules interact with cells,’ Associate Professor Lawrence said. ‘We can now exploit this knowledge to design new insulin medications with improved properties, which is very exciting.’
The scientists used the Australian Synchrotron microcrystallography beamline for this project, which they said was critical to its success.
‘If we did not have this fantastic facility in Australia, and their staff available to help us, we would simply not have been able to complete this project,’ Associate Professor Lawrence observed.
Associate Professor Lawrence assembled an international team of collaborators for this work, including scientists at Case Western Reserve University, the University of Chicago, the University of York and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague.
‘Collaborations in this field are essential,’ Associate Professor Lawrence said. ‘No one laboratory has all the resources, expertise and experience to take on a project as difficult as this one.’
The project was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the government of the state of Victoria.
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