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Prior Award Recipients

2020 FOEDRC Resaerch Awards

Catalyst Awards 

Young-Eun Cho, PhD, RN 

Assistant Professor
College of Nursing 
Project Title: "Extracellular Vesicles in Breastmilk: A Mediator between Obese Mothers and Children

Thomas Rutkowski, PhD 

Associate Professor 
Anatomy and Cell Biology
Project title: "The role of TCA dependent NADPH production in ER homeostasis and susceptibility to NASH"

Seed Grant Recipients

Sukirth Ganesan, B.D.S., PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Periodontics
Project title: "Salivary Metabolomic Signatures of Patients with Metabolic Syndrome"

Anna Stanhewicz, PhD

Assistant Professor
Health and Human Physiology 
Project title: "Role of Oxidative Stress in Microvascular Dysfunction following Gestational Diabetes"

2019 FOEDRC Research Awards

Catalyst Awards

Deniz Atasoy, PhD

Assistant Professor
Neuroscience and Pharmacology 
Project Title: "Identifying the defective feeding pathways in hypoglycemia unawareness"

Huxing Cui, PhD

Assistant Professor 
Neuroscience and Pharmacology 
Project Title: "Fine-mapping of pancreatic vagal circuit for systemic glucose homeostasis: the role of melanocortin signaling"

Seed Grant Recipients

M. Nedim N. Ince, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor
Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Project Title: "Single Cell Analysis of Adipose Tissue Regulatory T Cells"

William Sivitz, MD 

Emeritus Professor
Internal Medicine - Endocrinology and Metabolism
Project Title: "13C labelled isotopomer analysis for assessment of flux through oxaloacetate"

Ajit Vikram, PhD

Assistant Professor 
Internal Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine 
Project Title: "Early-life dysbiosis reprograms metabolic disorders through circulating microRNA-122"

2018 FOEDRC Research Awards 

  Chad Grueter, PhD 

  Assistant Professor
  Internal Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine 
  Project Title: "Nuclear Regulation of Mitochondria"

  Julien Sebag, PhD 

  Assistant Professor
  Molecular Physiology & Biophysics 
  Project Title: "Development of small molecule enhancers of insulin GLUT4 translocation for the treatment of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes."

  Long-Sheng Song, MD, MS 

  Professor
  Internal Medicine - Cardiovascular 
  Project Title: "Metabolic regulation of junctophilin-2."

2017 FOEDRC Research Awards

Songhai Chen, MD, PhD

Associate Professor
Pharmacology and Internal Medicine
Project Title: "Hepatic WDR26: a Novel Regulator of the PKA Signaling and Glucose Metabolism."

N. Charles Harata, MD, PhD

Associate Professor
Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Project Title: "Acute hypoglycemia and release of neurotransmitter glutamate from brain neurons."

Alberto Maria Segre, PhD

Professor
Chair and Gerard P Weeg Faculty Scholar in Informatics
Project Title: "Remote Monitoring of Diabetic Foot Ulcers."

2016 FOEDRC Research Awards

Ryan Boudreau, PhD

Assistant Professor
Internal Medicine -Cardiovascular Medicine
Project Title: "Defining the Role of a Novel Mitochondrial Protein in Metabolism."

Brandon Davies, PhD

Assistant Professor
Biochemistry
Project Title: "Skeletal Muscle Programming of Capillary Endothelial Cells"

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Eric Taylor, PhD

Assistant Professor
Biochemistry
Project Title: "A novel regulator of glutamine-driven gluconeogenesis."

Wei Bao, PhD

Assistant Professor
Epidemiology
Project Title: "Nontraditional glycemic markers in early pregnancy as predictors of gestational diabetes."

2015 FOEDRC Research Awards

Aloysius Klingelhutz, PhD

Professor
Microbiology & Immunology and Radiation Oncology
Project Title: "Role of Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor in Adipogenesis and Diabetes."

Matthew Potthoff, PhD

Associate Professor
Pharmacology
Project Title: "Endocrine Control of Simple Sugar Intake and Sweet Taste Preference by the Liver."

Peter Snyder, MD

Professor
Internal Medicine -Cardiovascular Medicine and Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Project Title: "Epithelial Na+ Channel Regulation by Glucose."

2014 FOEDRC Research Awards

Grobe, Justin small

Justin Grobe, PhD

Assistant Professor
Pharmacology
Project Title: “Non-Aerobic Resting Metabolism: An Untapped Obesity Target?”

Lira, Vitor small

Vitor Lira, PhD

Assistant Professor
Health and Human Physiology
Project Title: “Regulation of ACC levels and fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle by ULK1-dependent autophagy”

Piper, Rob small

Robert Piper, PhD

Professor
Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Project Title: “What are the effectors of Rab10 that mediate translocation of GLUT4 in response to Insulin?”

2013 FOEDRC Research Awards

Charlie Brenner, PhD

Roy J. Carver Chair of Biochemistry
Professor
Biochemistry
Studied the impact of nicotinamide riboside (NR) in the treatment or prevention of diabetic neuropathy.
Michael Lutter, MD, PhD 

Associate Professor
Psychiatry 
Studied the genetics of feeding behavior.
Philip Polgreen, MD, MPH 

Associate Professor
Internal Medicine - Division of Infectious Diseases
Evaluated a novel tool using text messaging and smart pedometer technology and interactive gaming to promote sustained weight loss in patients with obesity and insulin resistance. The study's goal was to specifically determine if adding personalized information to FitBit text messages increases compliance, activity and ultimately affected clinically important outcomes.

2012 FOEDRC Research Awards

Chadi Calarge, MD

Associate Professor
Psychiatry and Pediatrics
Studied whether antipsychotic drugs caused weight gain and diabetes by altering intestinal bacterial populations.
Gary L. Pierce, PhD

Assistant Professor
Health and Human Physiology
Studied whether inhibition of inflammation affected macrovascular and autonomic dysfunction in obese, prediabetic humans.
Dawn E. Quelle, PhD

Associate Professor
Pharmacology and Pathology
Studied how the protein Parf-1A regulated the growth of insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas,and thus influenced the development of diabetes.
Yuriy M. Usachev, PhD

Associate Professor
Pharmacology
Studies targeted mitochondrial processes that might provide neuro protection in peripheral diabetic neuropathy.

2011 FOEDRC Research Awards

Anne E. Kwitek, PhD
 
Associate Professor 
Pharmacology, Internal Medicine, and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Studied how a high-fat diet altered the expression of genes that contributed to the metabolic syndrome.
Andrew Norris, MD, PhD
 
Assistant Professor
Pediatrics - Division of Pediatric Endocrinology
Proposed to devise an experimental system that would allow him to define the metabolic factors in a diabetic mother that predispose to the development of the disease in her offspring.
Kamal Rahmouni, PhD
 
Associate Professor
Pharmacology and Internal Medicine
Studied how the mechanisms involved in insulin signaling affected glucose homeostasis and diabetes.
Leonid Zingman, MD
 
Assistant Professor
Internal Medicine - Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Studied how newly discovered muscle protein signaled energy mobilization from adipose tissue during exercise.