Mentoring Obesity and Diabetes Research in Louisiana

近三分之二的美国人口在临床上超重或肥胖，近10%的人口患有成人发病糖尿病。肥胖和糖尿病是统称为“代谢综合征”的一系列病理的核心因素。我们在彭宁顿生物医学研究中心的生物医学研究卓越中心（COBRE）正在通过招募有成就的高级研究人员和有前途的年轻科学家来加强对代谢疾病的研究，这些科学家在中心研究人员的指导下走向独立。Pennington COBRE项目涉及来自优秀青年教师的五个项目，这些项目采用细胞，分子和翻译方法的组合来解决从葡萄糖感知和能量稳态的神经机制，与脂肪生成相关的炎症机制，肥胖的表观遗传编程到脂肪细胞线粒体生物生成的调节等问题。结合体内、离体和体外方法，每个项目都将探讨与肥胖发展过程中脂肪组织扩张相关的能量稳态调节和代谢疾病相关病理的基本问题。COBRE第二阶段的具体目标是通过以下方式进一步扩大从事肥胖/糖尿病研究的富有成效的研究人员的数量：(a)从机构内培养和留住优秀的新初级教师，并指导他们获得可持续的独立资金；(b)招募从事代谢疾病研究的优秀初级和高级教师，以补充中心研究人员的现有优势；(c)开发和促进与从事临床/转化研究的机构同事进行合作互动的新机会；(d)通过开发培训模块和外展活动，加强对第一阶段细胞生物学/生物成像和基因组学核心设施内开发的优秀研究基础设施的利用。我们二期COBRE的目标是招募5名新教师，并指导10名初级教师获得独立资金，因为我们将继续培养一批关键的科学家，致力于寻找解决日益严重的代谢性疾病国家健康问题的方法。

Nearly two-thirds of the US population is either clinically overweight or obese and almost 10% of the population has adult-onset diabetes. Obesity and diabetes are central elements of a cluster of pathologies collectively referred to as "metabolic syndrome". Our Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center is leading an effort to enhance research on metabolic disease by recruiting accomplished senior investigators and promising young scientists who are mentored to independence by Center investigators. The Pennington COBRE involves five projects from outstanding junior faculty that employ a combination of cellular, molecular, and translational approaches to address questions ranging from neural mechanisms of glucose sensing and energy homeostasis, inflammatory mechanisms linked to adipogenesis, epigenetic programming in obesity, to regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis in adipocytes. Using a combination of in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro approaches, each project will pursue fundamental questions critical to regulation of energy homeostasis and the associated pathologies of metabolic disease linked to expansion of adipose tissue mass during development of obesity. The Specific Aims of our COBRE in Phase II are to further expand the critical mass of productive investigators engaged in obesity/diabetes research by (a) develop and retain outstanding new junior faculty from within the institution and mentor them to sustainable independent funding (b) recruit outstanding junior and senior faculty engaged in metabolic disease research that complement existing strengths of Center investigators; (c) develop and foster new opportunities for collaborative interactions with institutional colleagues engaged in clinical/translational research, (d) enhance utilization of the outstanding research infrastructure developed within the Cell Biology/Bioimaging and Genomics core facilities in Phase I through development of training modules and outreach activities. Our Phase II COBRE goals are to recruit 5 new faculty to the institution and mentor 10 junior faculty to independent funding as we continue to build a critical mass of scientists devoted to finding solutions to the expanding national health problem of metabolic disease.