5 Live Science Podcast — Modified Insulin That Can Be Switched Off

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 Dr Chris Smith talks with Dr David B. Sacks from the US National Institutes of Health about a new form of insulin that switches itself off before blood glucose levels drop too low. This required a "switch" to be engineered into the molecule. Hormones are chemical messengers, but unlike nerves they act over a longer period. Normally insulin, a hormone made in the pancreas, is released to tell the body's cells to use glucose. But when glucose levels fall back to normal, insulin production reduces to compensate. Self-injected insulin can result in excessive insulin in the blood after blood glucose has fallen sufficiently, potentially making levels too low.