The role of protein SUMOylation in glucose homeostasis and Type-II Diabetes

Dr Tim Craig at UWE Bristol is looking into novel mechanisms involved in the pathology of Type-II Diabetes and the regulation of blood glucose levels.

Type-II Diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases in the world, and currently consumes 10% of the NHS budget. This figure is predicted to rise in the coming years, and the prevalence of this disease increases. For these reasons, Type-II Diabetes is one of the most pressing public health concerns of modern times, and it results in greatly increased morbidity and mortality amongst those affected. Despite this, however, much is still not understood about the pathology and development of the disease, and there is a paucity of newly identified drug targets. Indeed, most of the drugs used to treat type-II diabetes are decades old, and despite intensive research in this area, the severe insulin resistance seen in advanced Type-II Diabetes remains essentially intractable to treatment.

Recent research has suggested that the post-translational modification, SUMOylation, plays a previously unsuspected role in both Type-II Diabetes and glucose homeostasis in healthy individuals, however the exactly role of this modification in these processes is uncertain.

Dr Tim Craig has recently been awarded a £100,000 Wellcome Trust grant to investigate the link between SUMOylation, Type-II Diabetes and glucose homeostasis, and it is hoped that work in this area will identify novel pathways involved in the pathology of this disease, which may provide new therapeutic targets.

Please email Dr Tim Craig at tim.craig@uwe.ac.uk for further information.