Delineating insulin-action pathways

The hormone insulin is probably most associated with its role in whole body
glucose homeostasis with insulin binding receptors on fat and muscle cells
playing a central role in clearing post-prandial plasma glucose. Insulin is also an
important growth factor exerting powerful mitogenic effects. Very little is known
about how insulin elicits these two separate physiological responses and in
particular where the signaling pathways that regulate them diverge. The aim of
this studentship is to determine which insulin receptors regulate different effects
of insulin. This will be achieved by using genome editing to create cell lines that
have bespoke receptor profiles and also by using structural biology knowledge of
how insulin binds its different receptors.