Washington, November 6 : A PhD student at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research has made a significant advance towards understanding exactly how insulin prompts fat and muscle cells to absorb glucose, a problem that has puzzled researchers for over 50 years.
"Since the 1920s, when Banting and Best discovered insulin, scientists have been battling to discover how it actually works," said Professor David James, head of Garvan''s Diabetes Program.
"Then along comes Freddy Yip, doing his PhD, who unveils a completely novel action of insulin, one which we believe plays a fundamental role in glucose uptake, a process that is defective in Type 2 diabetes," he added.