The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center released the following announcement today.
The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center is pleased to announce the results of its fourteenth round of Pilot and Feasibility Grants. These grant awards fund innovative pilot projects by early career investigators who are entering the diabetes research field, or established investigators with innovative ideas that focus on a new direction in diabetes research. The goal of the program is to generate data that will enable awardees to compete for peer-reviewed national funding for projects that show exceptional promise.
Over a dozen researchers from across the UI campus submitted meritorious proposals that underwent a comprehensive and competitive review process. Two applicants were selected to receive a catalyst award grant of $50,000 to support their research proposal, with the possibility for a second year of funding, for a total of $100,000 over a two-year period. Two applicants were also selected to receive one-year seed grant awards of $5,000 each to support discreet research proposals to obtain data needed to generate essential preliminary data in a diabetes-related project to increase competitive for subsequent extramural funding.
Catalyst Award Recipients
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology
Project: Mechanism(s) driving dopamine transporter dysregulation and altered motivation in obesity
Over 70% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) in the United States, a status that substantially increases risk of several co-morbid medical conditions. At its core, obesity results from an excess of caloric intake relative to expenditures, but compulsive eating irrespective of the body’s nutritional requirements is mediated by neural circuits responsible for decision making. The goal of this project is to understand, at the molecular level, how consumption of a diet high in fat, either forced or through choice, triggers adaptations in the modulatory influence of the neurotransmitter dopamine in brain regions driving motivation to seek out highly palatable food. As women are almost twice as likely to develop severe obesity relative to men, a key component of the proposal is to determine if the impact of excess adiposity on the dopamine system differs by sex. Our ultimate goal is to uncover novel therapeutic targets for obesity treatment with a particular focus on intervention strategies aimed at re-establishing healthy eating habits.
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Project: Cardiac Triglyceride Uptake and Insulin Sensitivity After Omega‐3 Fatty Acid Feeding
Omega-3 fatty acids confer a number of beneficial phenotypes including lower plasma triglycerides and improved insulin sensitivity. Some, but not all studies, suggest that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids may reduce cardiovascular disease. How omega-3 fatty acids mediate their beneficial effects is not completely understood. In preliminary studies we found that mice fed a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids take up much more fat into the heart than mice fed a low-fat diet or a diet high in saturated fatty acids. The goal of this study is to understand how the increased delivery of fatty acids into the hearts of these mice effects heart function and insulin sensitivity.
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine-Endocrinology and Metabolism
Project: Generation and characterization of mice with conditional Cyp2e1 deletion in thermogenic adipocytes
Obesity can lead to several diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The prevalence of obesity has increased in both men and women in the United States, but relative to men, women are protected from the negative effects of obesity on health. Understanding why this happens could aid in the development of personalized treatments to reduce obesity and associated diseases. Activation of special fat cells called brown adipocytes (BA) may prevent obesity in mice and humans. Our data showed that a protein called CYP2E1 is increased in BA of obese female mice but is decreased in males. High CYP2E1 in females is linked with reduced body weight, whereas decreased CYP2E1 in males is linked with weight gain. In this study, we will create mice lacking CYP2E1 in BA to test if this protein is required to activate BA function and to protect female mice against obesity. If successful, this study will identify CYP2E1 as a molecular player driving sex differences during obesity.
Assistant Professor, College of Nursing
Project: Targeting Inflamed Endothelial Cells Using Engineered Extracellular Vesicles
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a major cause of death in the United States. One key factor in these diseases is damage to the cells lining blood vessels, known as endothelial cells (ECs). This damage is often caused by inflammation, but current treatments don’t specifically target these cells. To address this, we’re exploring the use of engineered tiny particles called extracellular vesicles (EVs) to deliver medicine directly to the damaged ECs. By adding a special targeting molecule to the EVs, we’ve made them much better at finding and entering inflamed ECs. In in vitro tests, these engineered EVs were taken up by inflamed ECs much more efficiently than regular EVs. Based on these findings, we plan to test these EVs in diet-induced obese mice with impaired ECs to evaluate the targeted delivery and distribution of engineered EVs. This research aims to develop new therapeutics that improve EC function, offering potential treatments for various CVDs.