Drug companies including Sanofi, Merck and Pfizer are working on anticancer drugs that block insulin-like growth factor, a related molecule.

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Children who are lacking in insulin-like growth factor one, or IGF-1, can have short stature--making them smaller than 97.5% of normal children.

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Amgen has moved two other cancer drugs in final stage trials, including an antibody to insulin-like growth factor 1 that is being tested in pancreatic cancer.

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Dr Shulman added that the reduction could be a contributing factor to the development of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes because of its effect on fat burning and mitochondria production.

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But scattered throughout that DNA are 20, 000 genes, the recipe books that tell the body how to make proteins such as insulin, muscle, hemoglobin, brain tissue, bone, clotting factor--virtually everything in our bodies.

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