Grant recipient

Sara Linse

Unravelling the IAPP aggregation mechanism for the design of inhibitors that specifically suppress toxicity and cell death in type 2 diabetes

Grant amount: DKK 10,000,000

Sara Linse says: “Type-2 diabetes affects over 400 million people world-wide and is linked to aberrant behavior of the hormone IAPP. IAPP is produced, stored and released together with insulin, which is needed for our sugar metabolism. In most cases of type-2 diabetes, IAPP is found in aggregated form. This causes death of the insulin-producing cells. Current efforts to develop inhibitors against IAPP aggregation are spent without knowledge of the underlying mechanism. This is where this project comes in. We will first solve the mechanism in term of which steps happen and which of these steps cause death of insulin-producing cells. Inhibitor design will then target exactly these steps to limit cell death. This is important as targeting the wrong steps can even lead to increased cell death. We will optimize all parts of the experiments needed to find the mechanism in the relevant biological fluid, and the action of each potential inhibitor under conditions relevant to the situation in the human body.”