Patent ID: 8557512

Claim:
A method of determining whether a small molecule is an activator or an inhibitor of insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS2) which comprises: a) providing a test cell which overproduces IRS2 and exhibits an increase in binding of an IRS2-binding protein to IRS2, relative to a control cell which produces IRS2 at a lower level, or does not produce the protein at all, and which exhibits a lesser amount of binding of said protein to IRS2; b) causing the small molecule to come into contact with IRS2 or a complex comprising IRS2 and an IRS2-binding protein in the cell; and c) examining the test cell for modulation of an IRS2-mediated cellular signal, wherein the modulation is greater in the test cell as compared to the control cell, thereby identifying the small molecule as an activator or an inhibitor of IRS2.