Professor Guy Rutter, Head of the Department of Cell Biology, presents his Inaugural Lecture on: “Regulating insulin secretion: can we correct the deficiency in type 2 diabetes?”
A pre-lecture reception will precede the lecture from 16.45 in the Senior Common Room
Abstract: Defects in insulin secretion from pancreatic islet beta cells are a hallmark of all forms of diabetes mellitus, a disease which affects about 5 % of the population. My research seeks to understand how these cells work, what goes wrong in diabetes, and how we may correct it.
An important sensor of glucose in beta cells is the evolutionarily-conserved and nutrient-regulated enzyme, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). I will describe firstly our recent studies using knockout and transgenic mice in which the two catalytically active subunits of AMPK are selectively deleted or over-expressed in the beta cell.
Recent whole genome array studies in man (Sladek et al Nature, 2007) have identifed several polymorphisms in genes which are associated with type 2 diabetes and which lead to defective insulin production. Using an array of imaging and electrophysiological approaches to examine secretion at the single cell and whole animal level, we are dissecting the mechanisms through which polymorphisms in genes encoding TCF7L2, a transcription factor downstream of wnt signalling, and ZnT8, a secretory granule zinc transporter, lead to alterations in secretion which may contribute to disease progression.
Biography: After a PhD in Bristol on signalling by insulin and Ca2+-mobilizing hormones, I turned my attention to the regulation of insulin secretion with an MRC travelling Fellowship to work with Claes Wollheim in Geneva in 1991. This led to fundamental observations on the metabolic configuration of the pancreatic β cell. I returned to Bristol in 1993 where I was awarded a HEFCE lectureship in 1995. I established a lab interested in β cell biology, combining single cell imaging and molecular approaches. These were later extended to the use of mouse models, and to the exploitation of human genetic data as a “feeder” to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which glucose and other nutrients regulate β-cell gene expression and function. Supported by Programme and other grants from the Wellcome Trust, MRC, DUK, JDRF, BBSRC, NIH and EU, I became Professor of Biochemistry in Bristol in 2002.
In 2006 I was recruited to Imperial College London to as Head of a new Section of Cell Biology. An important goal currently is to exploit the identification of genes associated in whole gene studies as associated with Type 2 diabetes to provide insights into the control of β-cell mass and function.
To register for this lecture please email: e.powell@imperial.ac.uk