Investigation of pancreatic insulin-secreting cell function and survival

Funding Activity

Website
http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/349348

Funding Status
Closed

Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the .

Funded Activity Summary

Diabetes remains a major health problem in Australia. Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is eventually due to pancreatic insulin-producing beta-cell destruction, which is caused mainly by the cell death, so called 'apoptosis' or programmed suicide of the cells. Thus, attempting to protect beta-cells against death and rescue their insulin secretory function is emerging as a strategy for the treatment of diabetes. However, how the beta-cells undergo death and how to protect the cell death are still not completely understood. We have recently discovered a new protein, named sphingosine kinase, that is a strong protector against cell death. We also found that this enzyme is involved in process of insulin secretion. Thus, this application seeks to establish a dual role of this enzyme in protecting beta-cells from death and promoting insulin secretion by the cells. This will ultimately allow us to create new therapeutic strategy to target this protein for the management of diabetes.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2005

End Date: 01-01-2007

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $375,750.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Endocrinology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Insulin secretion | Pancreatic beta-cell apoptosis | Pathogenesis of Diabetes | Signal transduction | Sphingosine kinase | Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes | beta-cell apoptosis | drug development | pathogenesis of diabetes

Related Links