This revised renewal application seeks support for continuation of a highly successful, multi-center and multi- departmental training program at UT Southwestern Medical Center that provides M.D. and Ph.D. trainees with a firm basis in state-of-the-art methodologies and to prepare them for future academic careers in metabolism research. The program under the auspices of this T32 has been running for the past 39 years. Established investigators from several Departments and a number of Centers join forces to provide our trainees with a multi-facetted and diverse training program. Participating Centers include the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research, the Center for Hypothalamic Research, the Center for Human Nutrition, the Advanced Imaging Research Center, the McDermott Center for Human Genetics, Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and the Simmons Cancer Center. Areas of expertise include systemic and cellular metabolism, diabetes, lipid biosynthesis, obesity, human genetics related to metabolic disorders and tumor metabolism. Our T32 mentors direct highly competitive research programs of national and international stature. Our trainees can take advantage of a very strong research infrastructure that allows them to address physiological, biochemical and cell biological problems with emerging technologies and the latest instrumentation. The 41 trainers chosen form a tightly interwoven, highly integrated group of investigators that cover all of the relevant areas in metabolism research and a number of subspecialties in endocrine research. Metabolism research at UT Southwestern has flourished over the past 5 years due to the programmatic expansion over the previous period from 2007-2012. The school has made a major commitment towards complementing existing areas of expertise by targeted recruitment of key personnel to fill existing gaps over the past decade. Here, we build upon the historic strengths of our training program, while taking advantage of the programmatic expansion experienced at UTSW. This T32 is an important cornerstone of metabolic research at UT Southwestern. We have successfully implemented a number of changes proposed in our previous application to further improve the quality of the training experience we provide. During the previous funding period (2011-2017), 12 trainees completed the program or are currently in the program. 6 Trainees who have completed 1 or 2 years on the Training Grant have successfully obtained F32, K08, K99 or American Cancer Society Post-Doctoral Fellowship support. 2 additional K08 awards are pending. The remaining 3 have applied, but did not get fundable scores. Of the 12 fellows supported, 2 hold senior scientist positions in industry, 6 hold faculty positions in academia, 2 are still post-doctoral fellows with their own funding, and 1 is still actively supported by the grant. The current epidemic of obesity and its pathophysiological sequelae are on the rise. It is paramount to train the next generation of metabolism researchers and endocrinologists to cope with this enormous public health problem and to develop innovative approaches to combat metabolic dysfunction.
Endocrine disorders such as diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemias, thyroid disease, and polycystic ovarian syndrome are associated with enormous costs, both with respect to their morbidity and mortality and in their burden on the health care system. This proposal aims to provide resources that train young investigators at the MD or PhD level who will play a key role in extending our understanding of basic metabolic processes at the subcellular, cellular, organ and system level and in translating these new insights into both mechanistic and translational advances for disorders related to metabolic dysfunction.
| Engelking, Luke J; Cantoria, Mary Jo; Xu, Yanchao et al. (2018) Developmental and extrahepatic physiological functions of SREBP pathway genes in mice. Semin Cell Dev Biol 81:98-109 |
| Lord, Caleb C; Wyler, Steven C; Wan, Rong et al. (2017) The atypical antipsychotic olanzapine causes weight gain by targeting serotonin receptor 2C. J Clin Invest 127:3402-3406 |
| Mani, Bharath K; Uchida, Aki; Lee, Young et al. (2017) Hypoglycemic Effect of Combined Ghrelin and Glucagon Receptor Blockade. Diabetes 66:1847-1857 |
| Stern, Jennifer H; Rutkowski, Joseph M; Scherer, Philipp E (2016) Adiponectin, Leptin, and Fatty Acids in the Maintenance of Metabolic Homeostasis through Adipose Tissue Crosstalk. Cell Metab 23:770-84 |
| Wylie, Annika; Jones, Amanda E; D'Brot, Alejandro et al. (2016) p53 genes function to restrain mobile elements. Genes Dev 30:64-77 |
| Stern, Jennifer H; Scherer, Philipp E (2015) Adipose tissue biology in 2014: Advances in our understanding of adipose tissue homeostasis. Nat Rev Endocrinol 11:71-2 |
| Zechner, Christoph; Gruntmanis, Ugis (2015) Systemic Mastocytosis With Decreased Bone Density and Fractures. Mayo Clin Proc 90:843-4 |
| Rutkowski, Joseph M; Stern, Jennifer H; Scherer, Philipp E (2015) The cell biology of fat expansion. J Cell Biol 208:501-12 |
| Wang, Qian; Liu, Chen; Uchida, Aki et al. (2014) Arcuate AgRP neurons mediate orexigenic and glucoregulatory actions of ghrelin. Mol Metab 3:64-72 |
| Uchida, Aki; Zechner, Juliet F; Mani, Bharath K et al. (2014) Altered ghrelin secretion in mice in response to diet-induced obesity and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Mol Metab 3:717-30 |
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