Corn-Related Program Underway to Treat Diabetes

July 24, 2001

Efforts are underway to see if plants can be engineered to produce a human enzyme to treat Type 2 diabetes. The program is part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) plant genome program created and supported by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).

If successful, the research now underway at Virginia Tech by Dr. Glenda Gillaspy, would use plants to produce the human enzyme (D-chiro inositol) used to treat 16 million Americans suffering from Type 2 diabetes. The project would enable the enzyme to be produced at a less expensive rate than otherwise would be the case.

Gillaspy will be using information from the arabidopsis plant. The plant's genome was sequenced last year because of the availability of funding from the NCGA-created plant genome program at the NSF.