Australian researchers have made a discovery which could spell the end of daily injections for hundreds of thousands of Australians.

About a million Australians have diabetes and many of them rely on regular injections of insulin.

Now scientists have uncovered the exact way the body handles insulin and that could lead to more efficient and much more convenient treatments.

Insulin is what makes the cells of the body take in sugar from the blood. For decades scientists have been trying to work out how that works.

Mike Lawrence and his research team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research have discovered how molecules of insulin bind to a protein on the cells of the body.

Using the Australian synchrotron, a type of particle accelerator, Professor Lawrence says the breakthrough is almost 30 years in the making.

"People have been trying to work out the centre action between insulin that's a receptor ever since the receptor was characterised in the mid 1980s," he said.

He says up until now, insulin therapy for diabetes has been designed without the knowledge of how insulin binds to protein.

"[It was done] totally in the dark, I mean everything has been done indirectly, it's not totally random, but people have stepped through the insulin molecule, tried to change this, tried to change that, seen what works, seen what doesn't work," he said.

"But no-one to date has actually known why it's like that, and that's what we've shown. So as new insulins will need to be developed, our work is going to form the platform for that development work."

'Missing piece'

Professor Lawrence says the research is a key development in piecing together the puzzle of insulin, and will have practical implications in the design of new types of medication.

"This is fundamental piece of research, to look at what has been a long-standing missing piece of information in the background to the design of insulins," he said.

"So the application down the track is that as pharmaceutical companies try to develop new and better insulins that are perhaps easier to administer, or administered less often or easier to store, so particularly in developing countries where there isn't adequate refrigeration.

"All of that work can now utilise the platform that we have developed to make basically better insulins."

The findings are published today in the journal Nature, and Professor Lawrence says knowledge of how the insulin receptor works may have applications for other diseases, including cancer.

"In a cancer environment in tumours, you might get insulin, the insulin signalling system actually setting up tumour growth, and that's something that we're only just beginning to realise," he said.

"So it's not inconceivable that our research into the interactions involving the insulin receptor might actually lead to therapeutic development for cancer."

The clinical advisor for Diabetes Australia, Jenny Gunton, says it is an important discovery for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who use insulin injections to control their diabetes.

Dr Gunton says it brings the dream of a tablet to treat diabetes one step closer.

"One of the key questions my patients ask me often is, is there a tablet to take instead of insulin? And at the moment the answer is no," she said.

"I think that this is like the $64 billion prize for a drug company, if it can develop a tablet to mimic insulin. So I don't know how difficult it will be, but I think most drug companies that work in the field of manufacturing insulins will be on this as soon as they can."