Obesity/overweight is a major threat to the public health of the United States and has been acknowledged as the second leading cause of death, behind smoking. Obesity has been linked to diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and a myriad of other health problems. Obesity is multifactorial, and is an end result of genetic, molecular, physiological, behavioral, and societal/environmental factors. Efforts to understand and manage this complex chronic disease have met with modest success. Obesity continues to grow in prevalence at an alarming rate in both adults and children. It is likely that research which transcends traditional boundaries of research and focuses on transdisciplinary, integrative approaches to research questions may provide the answers needed to conquer this critical threat to the health of individuals. This is the initial proposal for a competitive continuation of a research training program titled, """"""""Obesity: Genes to Man."""""""" The sponsoring institution is Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System. The objective of this program is to train Ph.D. postdoctoral fellows to become productive research scientists capable of establishing scientific careers that further the efforts of the NIH to understand the complex interactions between genetic, molecular, physiological, and behavioral aspects of obesity. Many molecular biologists/geneticists have been attracted to the obesity research field but lack the physiological/metabolic/behavioral expertise to fully exploit their discoveries. Conversely, physiological/metabolic and behavioral studies need to be complemented by molecular and genetic approaches for a fuller understanding.
We aim to bride the divide between the molecular/genetic approaches and the physiological/behavioral studies by encouraging trainees to gain experience in multiple areas of obesity research. It is difficult to get such a wide oversight or expertise during predoctoral programs. Hence, it is important to provide opportunities at the postdoctoral level for training in complementary areas. Each trainee will be encouraged to develop these transdisciplinary research efforts to understand aspects of the obesity disease. The program will take advantage of the cutting-edge technologies and the wide range of research efforts related to obesity that are available at Pennington. This broad-based, integrative training program will enable trainees to write competitive grant proposals that will help them establish successful research careers in academia, academic medicine, governmental agencies, and in the private sector, as well as maintain an interdisciplinary infrastructure at Pennington. The scientists at Pennington are committed to postdoctoral research training and see this as inseparable from their goal of excellence in research.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32DK064584-09
Application #
8102811
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDK1-GRB-8 (J2))
Program Officer
Densmore, Christine L
Project Start
2003-07-01
Project End
2013-06-30
Budget Start
2011-07-01
Budget End
2012-06-30
Support Year
9
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$133,662
Indirect Cost
Name
Lsu Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Department
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
611012324
City
Baton Rouge
State
LA
Country
United States
Zip Code
70808
Yu, Sangho; Cheng, Helia; François, Marie et al. (2018) Preoptic leptin signaling modulates energy balance independent of body temperature regulation. Elife 7:
Marlatt, Kara L; White, Ursula A; Beyl, Robbie A et al. (2018) Role of resistant starch on diabetes risk factors in people with prediabetes: Design, conduct, and baseline results of the STARCH trial. Contemp Clin Trials 65:99-108
Sadak, Karim Thomas; Marlatt, Kara L (2018) Re: ""The Effect of Atorvastatin on Vascular Function and Structure in Young Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Clinical Trial"" by Marlatt et al. (J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2017 [Epub ahead of print]; DOI: 10.1 J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol 7:141
Marlatt, Kara L; Beyl, Robbie A; Redman, Leanne M (2018) A qualitative assessment of health behaviors and experiences during menopause: A cross-sectional, observational study. Maturitas 116:36-42
François, Marie; Qualls-Creekmore, Emily; Berthoud, Hans-Rudolf et al. (2018) Genetics-based manipulation of adipose tissue sympathetic innervation. Physiol Behav 190:21-27
Marlatt, Kara L; Chen, Kong Y; Ravussin, Eric (2018) Is activation of human brown adipose tissue a viable target for weight management? Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 315:R479-R483
Most, Jasper; Marlatt, Kara Lynn; Altazan, Abby Duhé et al. (2018) Advances in assessing body composition during pregnancy. Eur J Clin Nutr 72:645-656
Most, Jasper; Gilmore, L Anne; Smith, Steven R et al. (2018) Significant improvement in cardiometabolic health in healthy nonobese individuals during caloric restriction-induced weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 314:E396-E405
Keller, Kathleen L; English, Laural K; Fearnbach, S Nicole et al. (2018) Brain response to food cues varying in portion size is associated with individual differences in the portion size effect in children. Appetite 125:139-151
Masterson, Travis D; Kirwan, C Brock; Davidson, Lance E et al. (2018) Brain reactivity to visual food stimuli after moderate-intensity exercise in children. Brain Imaging Behav 12:1032-1041

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