COBRE in Mesenchymal & Neural
Regulation of Metabolic Networks

Building research excellence in understanding causes of metabolic disease

Administration of the COBRE Program

This COBRE program at MaineHealth Institute for Research is led by Dr. Lucy Liaw, Program Director, with support from Dr. Clifford Rosen, Associate Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science, and Dr. Irwin Brodsky, Clinical Advisor. This program is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Award Number GM121301.

Our intent is to build a strong research center focused on the diseases of metabolism, including obesity, diabetes, and osteoporosis.

The overall program has four major goals:

  • Provide the leadership, governance, and advisory network to establish a new scientific program in mesenchymal progenitor cell biology and neural signaling to gain novel insights into the mechanisms underlying metabolic health and disease.

  • Provide project and mentorship support to launch the careers of promising junior investigators within this scientific program and help ensure their long-term scientific success as independent researchers.

  • Enhance the capabilities of our core facilities to support our COBRE investigators and other institutional and external researchers, and to stimulate innovative research methodologies and new collaborations.

  • Establish a pilot project program to focus on translational opportunities related to metabolic disease.

COBRE Projects

This program supports four young investigators with exciting collaborative projects studying brown adipose tissue, adipocytes in the bone marrow compartment, decreasing fracture risk in nursing home residents on anti-psychotic medications, and how the brain-bone connection regulates bone loss as a side effect of anti-psychotic medications. As these investigators become competitive to achieve independent grant funding, we will be able to recruit new talent to our Center.

Dr. Ziru Li, Faculty Scientist, is a M-COBRE Project Leader. Her project will use mouse models to identify pathways by which changes in the gut following bariatric surgery lead to bone loss.

Dr. Matt Lynes, Faculty Scientist, is a M-COBRE Project Leader. His project addresses genetic regulators of vascular smooth muscle thermogenic differentiation.

Dr. Isha Agarwal, Faculty Scientist, is a M-COBRE Project Leader. Her project addresses the role of circadian disruption in metabolic dysregulation during and after pregnancy.

Dr. Liz Scharnetzki, Faculty Scientist, is a M-COBRE Project Leader. Her project aims to mitigate feelings of stigmatization among patients with type 2 diabetes through use of a self-affirmation intervention.

COBRE Cores

This program also supports three scientific core facilities that use state-of-the-art technologies to perform global analysis of protein and lipid profiles, analyze the histopathology of tissues, and measure metabolic activity at the organism and cellular levels.

Dr. Volkhard Lindner is head of the Histopathology and Microscopy Core. Learn more about this Core and the Metabolic COBRE.

Dr. Cliff Rosen is head of the Physiology Core for the Mesenchymal and Neural Regulation of Metabolic Networks. Learn More about this Core and the Metabolic COBRE.

Dr. Cal Vary is head of the Proteomics and Lipidomics Core. Learn more about this Core and the Metabolic COBRE.

COBRE Publications

Publications

Advisory Committee

This committee provides scientific direction and guidance, consisting of national experts in the field.

  • Evan Rosen, MD, PhD, Chair, Professor of Medicine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Institute, Broad Institute, Harvard
  • Jacqueline Stephens, PhD, Professor, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University
  • Emily Oken, MD, MPH, Vice-Chair, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard
  • Joseph Nadeau, PhD, Faculty Scientist, MaineHealth Insitute for Research
  • Doug Sawyer, MD,PhD, Interim VP for Research, MaineHealth

This program is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Award Number GM121301. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.