Could insulin come in a pill?

How a molecule that mimics insulin may advance diabetes research

13-Dec-2022 - WEHI researchers in Melbourne have answered a 100-year-old question in diabetes research: can a molecule different to insulin have the same effect? The findings provide important insights for the future development of an oral insulin pill. The research team has visualised how a non-insulin ...

Mutant protein tackles DNA guardian to promote cancer development

How tumour development is driven by mutations in important gene in preventing cancer

09-Nov-2018 - Melbourne scientists have discovered how tumour development is driven by mutations in the most important gene in preventing cancer, p53. The research revealed that in the early stages of cancer, mutant p53 'tackles' the normal p53 protein and blocks it from carrying out its protective role. As a ...

Scientists uncover potential trigger to kill cancer

01-Jun-2016 - Melbourne researchers have discovered a new way of triggering cell death, in a finding that could lead to drugs to treat cancer and autoimmune disease. Programmed cell death, also called apoptosis, is a natural process that removes unwanted cells from the body. Failure of apoptosis can allow ...

Important Regulator of Immune System Decoded

21-Jan-2016 - Plasma cells play a key role in our immune system. Now scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria, and at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia, succeeded in characterizing a central regulator of plasma cell function. Cross ...

'Dark-horse' molecule is a potential new anti-cancer target

15-Aug-2013 - Australian researchers have identified a molecule called interleukin-11 as a potential new target for anti-cancer therapies. Until now, the importance of interleukin-11 in cancer development has been underestimated, but researchers have recently identified this molecule as a 'dark horse' for the ...

Pathway controlling cell growth revealed

19-Feb-2013 - A Melbourne-based research team has discovered a genetic defect that can halt cell growth and force cells into a death-evading survival state. The finding has revealed an important mechanism controlling the growth of rapidly-dividing cells that may ultimately lead to the development of new ...

Anti-inflammatory drugs may improve survival from severe malaria

25-May-2012 - A novel anti-inflammatory drug could help to improve survival in the most severe cases of malaria by preventing the immune system from causing irrevocable brain and tissue damage.Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have shown that a new class of anti-inflammatory agents, called IDR ...

Erg gene key to blood stem cell 'self-renewal'

18-Feb-2011 - Scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have begun to unravel how blood stem cells regenerate themselves, identifying a key gene required for the process. The discovery that the Erg gene is vitally important to blood stem cells' unique ability to self-renew could give scientists new ...

Malaria parasite caught red-handed invading blood cells

20-Jan-2011 - Australian scientists using new image and cell technologies have for the first time caught malaria parasites in the act of invading red blood cells. The researchers, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), achieved this ...

Recombination hotspot stacks the DNA deck in finding a new diabetes susceptibility gene

04-Nov-2010 - The autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes (T1D), also known as juvenile diabetes, is diagnosed in approximately 70,000 children worldwide per year. Genetics is increasingly being recognized as playing a significant role in susceptibility to the disorder, but outside a handful of genes, a clear ...