Yale researcher discovers treatment for diabetics, focusing on a simple hormone that occurs in all humans. The researcher has found a specific form of that hormone that pokes toxic holes in.
The new research is also central to the awarding of two permits totaling $600,000 from the Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund and the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale.
According to a report, a team of researchers led by Andrew Miranker, a professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and of chemical and environmental engineering, will be using these funds to convert the findings into therapies for type 2 diabetes.
As a part of the move, a new biotechnology company, ADM Therapeutics, based in Connecticut has been formed. Though the type 2 diabetes is the highlight of the research, the approaches developed by them are also applicable to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Type 2 diabetes is the condition in which the body’s cells aren’t able to properly respond to insulin. Around 9 percent of the adult including roughly 250,000 people 18 and older have been diagnosed with the diabetes, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
The research is focused on a protein known as islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP), a hormone made by the same cells. When IAPP changes its shape, it pokes holes in the membranes of islets, according to the Yale release.
“If we ameliorate these very large holes by designing a compound to target a particular IAPP structure, we can prevent toxicity,” Miranker said in the release.
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