METABOLIC FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LONG-TERM WEIGHT LOSS

候选人霍莉·汤普森医学博士致力于从事以患者为中心的临床研究。她目前正在丹佛的科罗拉多大学健康科学中心(UCHSC)完成内科和内分泌学5年临床研究员跟踪。候选人的长期职业目标是成为肥胖和体重调节领域的独立临床研究员。她感兴趣的具体领域是减轻肥胖状态，以及了解减肥后体重恢复的机制。这位候选人和她的导师詹姆斯·希尔博士已经为候选人制定了职业计划，以发展成为一名独立临床研究员所需的技能和专业知识。这项计划利用了该机构存在的众多合作机会和高水平的肥胖专业知识。她的导师詹姆斯·希尔博士自1982年以来一直成功地为肥胖研究提供资金，是肥胖研究的国际领先者。他完全致力于帮助候选人实现她的职业目标。候选人提出的研究计划利用了长期成功减肥和保持体重的受试者的独特登记。她建议将这些受试者中的一些人(至少5年来保持30磅的体重减轻)与那些减掉了类似体重但只保持了3个月减重的人进行比较。短期减重受试者被认为是“易感”人群，我们预计大多数人将在1年内恢复减重。相反，我们假设保持减肥5年的受试者不容易体重回升。通过比较这两组人，这位候选人希望找出可能解释体重回升易感性的代谢因素。拟议的项目将为申请者提供进行减肥干预、使用复杂工具评估能量代谢的重要经验，以及进一步与成功的减肥对象合作的经验。这些都是应聘者职业生涯规划的重要技能和经验。

The candidate, Holly Thompson M.D., is committed to pursuing a career in patient-oriented clinical research. She currently is completing a 5 year Clinical Investigator Track in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) in Denver. The candidate's long-term career goal is to become an independent clinical investigator in the area of obesity and body weight regulation. Her specific area of interest is in the reduced-obese state and in understanding mechanisms driving weight regain following a weight loss. The Candidate and her Mentor, Dr. James Hill, have mapped a career plan for the candidate to develop the skills and expertise necessary to become an independent clinical investigator. This plan takes advantage of the many opportunities for collaborations and the high level of obesity expertise that exists within this institution. Her mentor, Dr. James Hill, has been successfully funded for obesity research since 1982 and is an international leader in obesity research. He is totally committed to helping the candidate achieve her career objectives. The candidate's proposed research plan takes advantage of a unique registry of subjects who have been successful at long term weight loss and maintenance. She proposes to compare some of these subjects (who have maintained a 30 pound weight loss for a minimum of 5 years) to individuals who have lost a similar amount of weight but have only maintained the reduction for 3 months. The short-term weight reduced subjects are assumed to be a "susceptible" group, and we anticipate that most will regain their lost weight within 1 year. In contrast, we assume that subjects who have maintained a weight loss for 5 years are not susceptible to weight regain. By comparing the two groups, the candidate hopes to identify metabolic factors that may explain susceptibility to weight regain. The proposed project will provide the applicant important experience in conducting weight-loss interventions, in the use of sophisticated tools to assess energy metabolism, and further experience in working with successful weight-reduced subjects. These are important skills and experiences for the candidate's career plan.