UT Southwestern's obesity research receives $22 million NIH Roa...(urology lipid metabolism psychiatry and ...),Health

The scientists are divided into four interconnected research groups focused on certain metabolic aspects, and each will tackle new research projects with the NIH Roadmap infusion.

Dr. Joel Elmquist, professor of internal medicine and pharmacology, heads the group focused on the central regulators of energy metabolism, namely the hypothalamus, a region of the brain that controls food intake and energy expenditure. Dr. Craig Malloy, medical director of the Advanced Imaging Research Center, and Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition, oversee the in vivo intermediary metabolism group, which uses different imaging techniques to study metabolic disorders in humans and animals. Dr. David Mangelsdorf, chairman of pharmacology, and Dr. Joseph Goldstein, chairman of molecular genetics, head a group studying the molecular biology of energy metabolism. Dr. Jonathan Cohen, professor of internal medicine and in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, heads a group that examines human genetics and energy metabolism.

Combined, the quartet has three main objectives:

• Foster interdisciplinary interactions to study obesity and metabolic syndromes;
• Develop research programs using genetically modified mice to elucidate the metabolic and molecular bases of obesity and metabolic syndromes throughout the body; and
• Translate scientific findings made in animal models to humans.

Obesity remains a pressing problem, but the coordinated efforts of the task force increase our ability to generate future successes in fighting metabolic disorders, Dr. Elmquist said.

In applying the task forces research to huma
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