COBRE in Mesenchymal & Neural
Regulation of Metabolic Networks
Building research excellence in understanding causes of metabolic disease
M-COBRE News, Timeline & Photos
Timeline
Dr. Ziru Li joins MaineHealth Institute for Research as a Faculty Scientist I in the Center for Molecular Medicine. Dr. Li’s COBRE Project Title: Gut Regulation of Bariatric Surgery Induced Bone Loss
Congratulations to MHIR Faculty Scientist and M-COBRE Steering Committee Chair, Dr. Joe Nadeau for being awarded a a five-year, $9.6 million Transformative Research Award from the National Institutes of Health! Dr. Nadeau is a co-investigator with Van Andel Institute’s J. Andrew Pospisilik, PhD. The funding will be used to study unknown factors that drive people’s health besides their genes and environment.
Principal Investigator: Ilka Pinz, PhD Title: Novel caveolin-3 / NOTCH interaction regulates myoblast insulin signaling and differentiation
Congratulations to Dr. Lucy Liaw, Principal Investigator of the M-COBRE! Dr. Liaw received a National Institutes of Health award on behalf of the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Metabolic Networks (M-COBRE) for instrumentation that will support and expand metabolic phenotyping equipment in our Physiology Core Facility.
Congratulations to MHIR Faculty Scientist and M-COBRE Project Leader Alum, Dr. Aaron Brown for being awarded $2.1M from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Brown will examine brown fat further and help to better understand how the mitochondria that are found in brown fat burn energy.
Dr. Matt Lynes, Faculty Scientist, is a M-COBRE Project Leader. His project addresses genetic regulators of vascular smooth muscle thermogenic differentiation.
Michaela Reagan, PhD, was invited to serve as a permanent member of the National Institutes of Health Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 1 Study Section.
Congratulations to MHIR Faculty Scientist and M-COBRE Project Leader Alum, Dr. Kathrine Motyl! The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases awarded Dr. Motyl a grant to study how the nervous system affects bone. Dr. Motyl and her team will examine how the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) communicates with osteoclasts (cells that dissolve bone) through beta adrenergic receptors and how this pathway contributes to age- and SNS-related bone loss.
On April 29 a virtual ribbon cutting for MHIR’s mass spectrometer instrumentation took place. The new instrumentation will enable novel approaches that expand protein identification and quantification capabilities. Cal Vary, PhD, MHIR Faculty Scientist with Gusti Gartner, Technology Manager, and the new mass spectrometer. Dr. Vary gets help cutting the ribbon from Dr. Elizabeth Jacobs (VP Research), and Dr. Doug Sawyer (Chief Academic Officer).
We are starting the new year by renovating space for our Proteomics and Lipidomics Core facility to house the newly purchased Sciex TripleToF 6600+ mass spectrometry system. Thanks to NIH for supporting this new purchase through an S10 award to Calvin Vary PhD, Core Director (left). Proteomics and Lipidomics Core staff, Dr. Gusti Gartner (right).
Dr. Gusti Gartner (left) joins Dr. Cal Vary (right) in the Proteomics and Lipidomics Core in July 2020.
Congratulations to MHIR Faculty Scientist and M-COBRE Project Leader Alum, Dr. Michaela Reagan for being awarded a MERIT award from the National Cancer Institute! Dr. Reagan will study how multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, is understood and treated. Specifically her work will focus on new forms of cancer drug resistance that are driven by fat cell-derived factors.
This monthly meeting featured Dr. Daniel Spratt, Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at Maine Medical Center. Dr. Spratt was hosted by Dr. Irwin Brodsky, Clinical Advisor to the COBRE project and led a clinical-translational roundtable discussion about polycystic ovary syndrome.
The monthly meeting featured Dr. Kinna Thakarar, DO, MPH, Infectious Disease, MaineHealth Institute for Research and Dr. Katy Garrett, PharmD, HIV/HCV Clinical Pharmacist at Maine Medical Center. Drs. Thakarar and Garrett were hosted by Dr. Irwin Brodsky, Clinical Advisor to the COBRE project. They led a clinical-translational roundtable discussion about their clinical interests with participants, and reviewed descriptions of the lipodystrophy that comes with HIV disease and use of HIV medications.
Dr. Anyonya Guntur was appointed to Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA