The molecular basis of islet amyloid induced beta-cell death and the inhibition of islet amyloid induced toxicity

Amyloid formation plays a central role in a wide range of devastating diseases such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease, but the mechanism of amyloid formation has yet to be defined in detail for any protein. The nature of the toxic species produced during amyloid formation is controversial and past efforts at drug development that target amyloid for therapeutic benefit have been disappointing. Professor Raleigh's work will focus on islet amyloidosis by the neuropancreatic hormone islet amyloid polypeptide and its role in type 2 diabetes and pancreatic beta-cell death. His lab is aiming to determine how islet amyloid polypeptide forms and why it forms both toxic and non-toxic oligomers.