A young Tasmanian researcher has returned home from working in the United States to take up a research fellowship at the Menzies Research Institute, to investigate a disease that is reaching epic proportions in Australia.

A young Tasmanian researcher has returned home from working in the United States to take up a research fellowship at the Menzies Research Institute, to investigate a disease that is reaching epic proportions in Australia.

Dr Michelle Keske has been appointed a Member of the Menzies Research Institute in recognition of her impressive folio of research in the area of diabetes and metabolism.

"My research is focused on insulin resistance, which is an early indicator of type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease," said Dr Keske.

"Diabetes, and in particular type 2 diabetes, is Australia's fastest growing chronic disease. Nearly one in four Australian adults has either diabetes or impaired glucose metabolism.

"One of my first projects here will be to examine whether popular prescribed medications for high blood pressure can prevent or reverse insulin resistance, by influencing blood flow in skeletal muscle.

Dr Keske is Tasmanian by birth, having completed her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Tasmania in 2000.

After receiving her doctorate, she moved to the University of Virginia, USA, where she undertook postdoctoral research until 2005, also spending time undertaking a project on the molecular effects of insulin at the prestigious National Institutes of Health, and working in private industry.

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