Mentoring Obesity and Diabetes Research in Louisiana

近三分之二的美国人临床上超重或肥胖，近10%的人患有成人糖尿病。肥胖和糖尿病是统称为“代谢综合征”的一系列疾病的核心因素。我们位于彭宁顿生物医学研究中心的卓越生物医学研究中心(Cobre)正在通过招募有经验的高级研究人员和由中心研究人员指导的有前途的年轻科学家来领导一项加强代谢性疾病研究的努力。Pennington Cobre涉及来自杰出初级教员的五个项目，这些项目结合了细胞、分子和翻译方法，解决了从葡萄糖感知和能量稳态的神经机制、与脂肪生成有关的炎症机制、肥胖的表观遗传编程，到脂肪细胞线粒体生物生成的调控等一系列问题。利用体内、体外和体外方法的组合，每个项目都将探索对调节能量稳态至关重要的基本问题，以及与肥胖发展过程中脂肪组织块扩张有关的代谢性疾病的相关病理。Cobre在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/糖尿病研究的生产性研究人员的临界质量：(A)从机构内部培养和留住优秀的初级教员，并指导他们获得可持续的独立资助；(B)招聘从事代谢性疾病研究的优秀初级和高级教员，以补充中心研究人员的现有优势；(C)开发和培育与从事临床/翻译研究的机构同事进行协作互动的新机会；(D)通过开发培训模块和外联活动，提高对第一阶段细胞生物学/生物成像和基因组学核心设施内形成的优秀研究基础设施的利用。我们的第二阶段Cobre的目标是为该机构招聘5名新教师，并指导10名初级教师获得独立资助，同时我们继续建立一支致力于为不断扩大的全国代谢性疾病健康问题寻找解决方案的科学家队伍。

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.