Project 446663

Getting older is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes in humans. While there are many reasons for this, the energy producing machinery of the cells in our body (called 'mitochondria') begin to malfunction with age, at the same time as other serious diseases develop. Once this occurs, the organs in the body that rely the most on energy often begin to function poorly. As it turns out, these organs are the ones responsible for maintaining a healthy body and prevent us from developing diabetes. Unfortunately, very little is known about how mitochondria begin to fail. However, our team has identified a wide variety of key sites in mitochondria that fail with age and in diabetes, thus we are eager to determine how they become faulty, how they cause diabetes, and how we can repair them? We have assembled a team that is ideally positioned to address these issues. Indeed, we have world experts in areas that study the cells that secrete insulin, the immune cells that can destroy the insulin secreting cells, the skeletal muscle and liver that both regulate blood sugar levels, as well as the heart. When the heart doesn't work well, it is the major cause of death related to diabetes. If successful, we expect that our findings will provide brand new ways of restoring the function of mitochondria, which will direct us to new therapies to help treat or even cure type 1 and type 2 diabetes.