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GENETIC CODE EXPANSION

Treating diabetes with ‘cookies’

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Genetic code expansion is emerging as a promising strategy to precisely regulate protein expression. A new study engineered cells that enabled noncanonical-amino-acid-triggered insulin expression to rapidly regulate blood glucose levels in a diabetic mouse model.

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Fig. 1: NcAA ‘cookies’ trigger insulin production to lower blood glucose levels in diabetic mice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Jicheng Yu, Yuqi Zhang & Zhen Gu

Authors
  1. Jicheng Yu
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  2. Yuqi Zhang
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  3. Zhen Gu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuqi Zhang or Zhen Gu.

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Competing interests

Z.G. is the co-founder of Zenomics, Zencapsule, ZCapsule, and Wskin.

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Yu, J., Zhang, Y. & Gu, Z. Treating diabetes with ‘cookies’. Nat Chem Biol 18, 3–4 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00916-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00916-1

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