A PhD student at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research has uncovered an important piece in the puzzle of how insulin works, a problem that has plagued researchers for more than 50 years. This finding brings us one step closer to explaining exactly how insulin prompts fat and muscle cells to absorb glucose.

It is well known that yeast, the humble ingredient that goes into our breads and beers, prefer to eat some sugars more than others. Glucose, their favorite food, provides more energy than any other sugar, and yeast has evolved a complex genetic network to ensure that they consume as much glucose as possible whenever it is available.

Researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have solved the structure of a class of proteins known as sodium glucose co-transporters (SGLTs), which pump glucose into cells.

Duke University Medical Center scientists have found a mechanism that allows cells starved of iron to shut down energy-making processes that depend on iron and use a less efficient pathway involving glucose. This metabolic reshuffling mechanism, found in yeast cells, helps explain how humans respond to iron deficiency, and may help with diabetes research as well.

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With the aid of kitchen mixers, engineers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have whipped up, for the first time, permanent nanoscale bubbles – bubbles that endure for more than a year – from batches of foam made from a mixture of glucose syrup, sucrose stearate, and water.

A novel gene called rumi regulates Notch signaling by adding a glucose molecule to the part of the Notch protein that extends outside a cell, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Stony Brook University in New York in a report that appears today in the journal Cell.

A new type of fuel cell powered with glucose derived from biomass is described in the latest issue of the Inderscience Publication International Journal of Global Energy Issues. The experimental device works by using sunlight to convert the glucose into hydrogen to power the cell, which produces several hundred millivolts.

New findings from studies in mice suggest that defects in the brain’s ability to respond to glucose play a role in the development of non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes, and that a high-fat diet may contribute to impairing brain cells’ ability to regulate glucose throughout the body.

Alogliptin, a highly selective dipeptidyl peptidase-IV (DPP-4) inhibitor under investigation for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, demonstrated efficacy in reducing glucose levels throughout the day, in an early phase clinical study.