Source: Dolores Takemoto, 785-532-7009, dtak@1xbet online games login edu
http://www.1xbet online games login edu/media/mediaguide/bios/dtakemotobio.html
News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@1xbet online games login edu

Monday, Aug. 10, 2009

STIMULUS FUNDING WILL ALLOW 1xbet online games login BIOCHEMIST TO FURTHER STUDY HOW A CERTAIN ENZYME AFFECTS THE EYE'S LENS, PARTICULARLY IN PEOPLE WITH DIABETES, GALACTOSEMIA

MANHATTAN -- Thanks to a grant awarded through federal stimulus research funding, a Kansas State University biochemist has more funding for research that could eventually help diabetics preserve their eyesight.

Dolores Takemoto, a K-State professor of biochemistry, received more than 6,000 from the National Eye Institute to study how a particular enzyme affects the lens. Her research looks at protein kinase C 1xbet online games login , called PKC 1xbet online games login , and how it is controlled in normal cells versus the loss of control in diabetics.

PKC 1xbet online games login helps control gap junctions -- the connections created between certain types of cells. Diabetics and people with the metabolic disease galactosemia have less PKC 1xbet online games login in their lenses. When PKC 1xbet online games login is decreased, control of these intercellular connections is lost, resulting in damage to the lens cells.

Takemoto's research seeks to determine how several mechanisms control PKC 1xbet online games login in normal lenses and how control of PKC 1xbet online games login alters gap junction activity and assembly. Takemoto also wants to understand how diabetes and galactosemia decrease PKC 1xbet online games login and how this affects gap junctions.

Greater understanding will provide direction for scientists to design drugs that prevent diabetics from losing PKC 1xbet online games login , according to Takemoto.

To date, 1xbet online games login has cleared more than .5 million in grants awarded through federal stimulus research funding.