Charles Nicholas "Nick" Hales (25 April 1935 – 15 September 2005) was an English physician, biochemist, diabetologist, pathologist, and professor of clinical biochemistry.
After education at King Edward VI Grammar School, Stafford, C. Nicholas Hales matriculated in 1953 at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating BA (Cantab.)
During the 1960s he was elected a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, taught undergraduate classes, and held an appointment at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where he treated diabetic patients.
From 1977 until retirement in 2002, Hales was professor and head of the department of clinical biochemistry at the University of Cambridge and also an honorary consultant physician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
[2] ... in Seattle Nick began collaborating with electrophysiologist Dan Cook, with whom he applied the new technique of patch clamping to study ion channels in pancreatic β-cells.
Together they discovered a novel ATP-sensitive potassium channel and immediately recognized that this was a key component in the process of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion ... On his return to Cambridge, Nick collaborated with Mike Ashford to show that the aTP-sensitive K+ channel complex was the receptor through which sulphonylurea drugs act to stimulate insulin secretion ...[2]The research of Hales and Cook[3] eventually led to the development of an important class of drugs for controlling diabetes.