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SUMMARY:Neonatal Diabetes: From Molecule to Therapy - Professor Dame Franc
 es Ashcroft
DTSTART:20160217T210000Z
DTEND:20160217T220000Z
UID:TALK63753@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jamie Fox
DESCRIPTION:Whether you eat a whole box of chocolates or fast for the day\
 , the pancreatic beta-cells ensure that your blood glucose level remains r
 elatively constant by regulating the release of insulin from the pancreati
 c beta-cells. Diabetes results when insulin release is inadequate and bloo
 d glucose levels chronically rise. ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels
  play a vitally important role in regulating insulin secretion by coupling
  cellular energy metabolism to membrane electrical activity. As a result\,
  mutations in KATP channel genes result in insulin secretory disorders\, s
 uch as neonatal diabetes and hyperinsulinism. \n\nThis lecture will descri
 be how the KATP channel regulates insulin secretion and how dysfunctional 
 channel activity can result in either too much or too little insulin relea
 se. It will show how understanding KATP channel function has enabled many 
 patients born with neonatal diabetes to switch from insulin injections to 
 drug therapy\, with considerable improvement in both their clinical condit
 ion and quality of life. It will also discuss why some KATP channel mutati
 ons cause neurological disorders. Finally\, it will show how a mouse model
  of neonatal diabetes has provided fresh insight into the deleterious effe
 cts of high blood glucose on pancreatic beta-cells and the extent to which
  these changes can be reversed.\n\nProfessor Ashcroft is the Royal Society
  GlaxoSmithKline Research Professor at the University Laboratory of Physio
 logy\, Oxford and a Fellow of Trinity College\, Oxford. She holds BA\, PhD
  and ScD degrees from Cambridge University and was elected a Fellow of the
  Royal Society of London in 1999. Professor Ashcroft has also authored pop
 ular science books including Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival
  and The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body. In 2012 she was one
  of the five winners of the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.
LOCATION:Nihon Room\, Pembroke College
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