Rob Weijers
During the last two decades the discipline of biology developed the pacemaker hypothesis, which notes that the molecular composition of the mammalian lipid bilayer is centrally involved in regulating the metabolic activity of cells. At the same time, the discipline of physical chemistry demonstrated that the ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acyl chains regulates the mutual distance of these chains in a bilayer membrane, and consequently affects the flexibility of the membrane. Based on these innovative results, an assessment of the deformability of the red blood cell provides reliable information about glucose disposal during the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, as well as during aerobic exercise.