The purpose of this grant is to seek financial support for mentoring activities in patient -oriented research to allow young trainees to experience the excitement of scientific discovery. By mentoring, this applicant hopes to build the next generation of clinician investigators by having them experience the wonderful rewards of taking new biologic and health knowledge they have discovered and translating that knowledge into tangible benefits for patients, such as better diagnostic strategies or novel clinical therapies. In order to support such training efforts, this grant would provide financial resources for the applicant, so that she could maintain her own research program while freeing up time for mentoring activities. These mentoring activities involve teaching trainees how to build hypotheses, design protocols, achieve the highest standards of patient safety, address regulatory issues, develop manuscripts, write grants, and meet their career goals. The trainees will work within the applicant's research program in reproductive genetics and physiology. The applicant discovered that mutations in the kisspeptin-GPR54 signaling pathway result in an absence of pubertal development and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism across mammalian species. She is now using kisspeptin administration as the first direct probe of GnRH neuronal integrity in human reproductive biology. Study protocols will include healthy volunteers and patients with congenital GnRH deficiencies who have already been extensively phenotyped and genotyped. Kisspeptin (or analogous compounds) may provide another avenue for therapeutic intervention for patients with reproductive cancers, endometriosis, infertility, and abnormalities of pubertal timing. Patients with reproductive cancers may derive additional benefits given the metastasis suppressor properties of this pathway. Taken together, these projects and the applicant's mentoring will provide a strong program for training new clinical investigators in patient-oriented research.

Public Health Relevance

This grant will support the mentoring activities of the applicant in reproductive physiology so that she can train beginning clinical investigators to have passion for patient oriented research and to develop the skills to build their own investigative programs.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24)
Project #
5K24HD067388-04
Application #
8734267
Study Section
Developmental Biology Subcommittee (CHHD)
Program Officer
Lamar, Charisee A
Project Start
2011-09-10
Project End
2016-08-31
Budget Start
2014-09-01
Budget End
2015-08-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts General Hospital
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02199
Lippincott, Margaret F; Chan, Yee-Ming; Rivera Morales, Dianali et al. (2017) Continuous Kisspeptin Administration in Postmenopausal Women: Impact of Estradiol on Luteinizing Hormone Secretion. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 102:2091-2099
Lippincott, Margaret F; Chan, Yee-Ming; Delaney, Angela et al. (2016) Kisspeptin Responsiveness Signals Emergence of Reproductive Endocrine Activity: Implications for Human Puberty. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 101:3061-9
Zhu, Jia; Choa, Ruth E-Y; Guo, Michael H et al. (2015) A shared genetic basis for self-limited delayed puberty and idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 100:E646-54
Seminara, Stephanie B (2014) Fatness and fertility: which direction? J Clin Invest 124:2853-4
Noel, Sekoni D; Abreu, Ana Paula; Xu, Shuyun et al. (2014) TACR3 mutations disrupt NK3R function through distinct mechanisms in GnRH-deficient patients. FASEB J 28:1924-37
Calder, Michele; Chan, Yee-Ming; Raj, Renju et al. (2014) Implantation failure in female Kiss1-/- mice is independent of their hypogonadic state and can be partially rescued by leukemia inhibitory factor. Endocrinology 155:3065-78
Sidhoum, Valerie F; Chan, Yee-Ming; Lippincott, Margaret F et al. (2014) Reversal and relapse of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism: resilience and fragility of the reproductive neuroendocrine system. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 99:861-70
Chan, Yee-Ming; Lippincott, Margaret F; Butler, James P et al. (2014) Exogenous kisspeptin administration as a probe of GnRH neuronal function in patients with idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 99:E2762-71
Shi, Chang-He; Schisler, Jonathan C; Rubel, Carrie E et al. (2014) Ataxia and hypogonadism caused by the loss of ubiquitin ligase activity of the U box protein CHIP. Hum Mol Genet 23:1013-24
Margolin, David H; Kousi, Maria; Chan, Yee-Ming et al. (2013) Ataxia, dementia, and hypogonadotropism caused by disordered ubiquitination. N Engl J Med 368:1992-2003

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