Dr James Bowe from King's College, London has been awarded the DRWF 2008 Non-Clinical Research Fellowship for his work on kisspeptin in the placenta and the pancreas. The fellowship will last three years.
Title: Defining the physiological role of kisspeptin in Islet function
Amount: £163,533
Lay Summary - By Dr James Bowe
Kisspeptin is a recently-discovered molecule that is only found in a few areas of the human body – the hypothalamic area of the brain, the placenta and the 
pancreas. One important function of kisspeptin in the brain is to control when the process of puberty starts, but the function(s) of kisspeptin in the placenta and the pancreas are unknown.
We have shown that pancreatic kisspeptin is localised to the insulin-secreting β-cells in islets of Langerhans, and that β-cells also make receptors for kisspeptin, suggesting that kisspeptin is made and released within the islet to have a local regulatory effect. The hypothalamus, placenta and endocrine pancreas are all involved in the long-term regulation of energy balance so we propose that the β-cell kisspeptin is involved in regulating islet function at times of changes in metabolic demand, such as starvation, obesity, pregnancy and Type 2 diabetes.
The project will measure the effects of kisspeptin on insulin secretion, and on the growth and survival of β-cells. Information gained from these studies may identify new ways of modifying islet function (insulin secretion, β-cell mass) with potential therapeutic applications.