Prof. Patrizia Agostinis
Biological and related sciences, Health, Cell Biology, Cellular signaling, Cancer biology, Cancer therapy
Biological and related sciences
Membranes and Transport
Cellular Metabolism, Membranes and Transport, Molecular Medicine
Croonian Lecture, The Royal Society, Hille Lecture, Seattle USA, 2013
L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Award (European Laureate), 2012
Royal Society/Wolfson Merit Award, 2012
Peter Baker Lecture, Kings College London, 2012
Honorary Fellowship, Girton College Cambridge, 2011
Feldberg Foundation Prize, 2010
Honorary Member, British Biophysical Society, 2010
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London (8000th Fellow), 1999
Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 1999
English
My research focuses on glucose homeostasis. Specifically, I am interested in how a rise in the blood sugar concentration stimulates release of the hormone insulin from the beta-cells of the pancreas, what goes wrong with this process in type 2 diabetes and neonatal diabetes, and how drugs used to treat these conditions exert their beneficial effects.
Much of my work concerns the ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel, which we have shown plays a key role in insulin secretion in both health and disease. I am interested in how the function of the KATP channel relates to its structure, how cell metabolism regulates channel activity, and how mutations/polymorphisms in KATP channel genes cause human disease. We study the channel at many levels ranging from its atomic structure, biophysical properties to its many roles in different tissues, the whole organism and human disease.
As a direct result of my work on the KATP channel, several hundred patients with neonatal diabetes have been able to switch from insulin injections to oral sulphonylurea drugs, with substantial improvement in their clinical condition and quality of life. The neurological symptoms that some patients experience may also be ameliorated. Together with Andrew Hattersley, I also raised the money for, and organised, the first ever meeting for patients with neonatal diabetes and their families (2009).
Finally, we also study the function of the FTO gene that predisposes to common obesity.
I have trained 18 PhD students and 42 post-doctoral fellows. Many are now established academics, in various countries, including Denis Burdakov, Fiona Gribble, Masafumi Kakei, Birgit Liss, Frank Reimann, Jochen Roeper, Paolo Tammaro, Makoto Takano, Stephan Trapp and Stephen Tucker. Others have entered clinical medicine. Some of my past students have won major international pzies, e.g. Gribble, the Minkowski Prize (European Association for the Study of Diabetes); Liss, the Alfried Krupp-Förderpreis for Young Professors, (a one-million-Euro prize from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation).
My textbook, Ion Channels and Disease, was critically acclaimed and even after 10 years remains a standard text for many undergraduate and graduate courses that deal with ion channels. It was instrumental in helping define the new field of 'channelopathies'.
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Biological and related sciences, Health, Cell Biology, Cellular signaling, Cancer biology, Cancer therapy
Biological and related sciences, Physical sciences, Bioelectrochemistry, Synthetic Biology, Chemical Biology
Biological and related sciences, Evolutionary biology, Animal behaviour, Gender studies, Science studies
Biological and related sciences, Microbial bioelectrochemistry, Microbial electrophysiology
Frances Ashcroft's research at the University of Oxford on how a rise in blood sugar levels causes insulin to be released from the pancreas has led to simpler treatment for people with neonatal diabetes.