Canada Research Chair in Cell Biology of Insulin Action
Tier 1 - July 1, 2004
Health

Understanding the signal transduction elicited by insulin and mechanisms of glucose uptake through glucose transporters.

The research will develop an understanding of, and solutions for, insulin resistance in type II diabetes.

Type II diabetes is a growing health problem among children and adolescents. It affects an estimated two million Canadians and one out of fifteen people in the Western world. The main problem for those with the disease is resistance to insulin, a hormone that allows muscles to use dietary sugars (glucose) to produce energy for activity. In those with type II diabetes, insulin-sensitive tissues lose the ability to respond properly to insulin, ushering in a host of complications including circulatory defects, blindness, and cardiovascular disease, which carries an increased risk of death.

Dr. Amira Klip, a leading researcher in cell biology, is breaking new ground in diabetes research in two specific areas. In one, she is unravelling the fine details of insulin signalling with insulin-sensitive tissues; in the other, she is characterizing the final step of insulin action in muscle.

Her work focuses on the molecular mechanisms whereby insulin increases the number and function of glucose “entry ports”—also known as glucose transporters (GLUTs)—on muscle cells, in order to increase glucose uptake. A 2000 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Dr. Klip used cell biology and biochemical methods to identify these entry ports for glucose, both for muscle cells and across the blood-brain barrier. She found that insulin causes a type of glucose transporter known as GLUT4 to move from inside the cell to the muscle plasma membrane, in order to bring glucose into the cell.

As the Canada Research Chair in Cell Biology of Insulin Action, Dr. Klip is further clarifying the mobilization and activation of GLUT4, with an emphasis on defining which of the many steps involved may be defective (and potentially reversible) in type II diabetes. By clarifying the molecular details of these phenomena, Dr. Klip’s research is generating new approaches to combating insulin resistance and diabetes.