NZ scientists' diabetes breakthrough 

Chemists have the tools to design a new drug to combat diabetes thanks to a breakthrough by scientists at Auckland University.

Researchers at the Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery have mapped the structure of an enzyme which breaks down important sugars.

Centre Director Professor Ted Baker says the enzyme is usually found in large quantities in diabetics.

He says decoding the enzyme means chemists know what it looks like and how it works and can now design a drug to block it.

Baker says the drug can be very specific and will attack the enzyme but nothing else.

It has taken about three years to decode the enzyme.

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