The Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center at The University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine awards fund innovative pilot projects by early career investigators who are entering the diabetes research field, or established investigators with innovative ideas that focus their research program in a new direction that addresses important questions in diabetes research. This round Drs. Atasoy and Cui were awarded the 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. 

Deniz Atasoy, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Carver College of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology was recently awarded a pilot grant from the Fraternal Order of Eagles’ Diabetes Research Center for a project entitled “Identifying the defective feeding pathways in hypoglycemia unawareness”. Identify and validate hypoglycemic feeding pathways.  Our project is based on preliminary results showing that a specialized neuron population in the brain, named AgRP-neurons, is required for hypoglycemic feeding. However, the pathways that activate AgRP neurons are not known. Therefore, we will first identify these pathways and then test whether they respond to hypoglycemia. Finally, we will test whether these pathways are required for hypoglycemic appetite upregulation. Upon successful completion, our results will lay the foundation for broader investigation into the disease mechanisms in these circuits.

Huxing Cui, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Carver College of Medicine Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology was recently awarded a pilot grant from the Fraternal Order of Eagles’ Diabetes Research Center for a project entitled “Fine-mapping of pancreatic vagal circuit for systemic glucose homeostasis: the role of melanocortin signaling”. Obesity and diabetes are serious chronic metabolic diseases affecting over 40% of adults in the United States. While the autonomic nervous system is critical for key physiological processes involved in metabolic homeostasis and is dysfunctional in obesity and diabetes, the functional autonomic circuits regulating the physiology of key metabolic organs are largely unknown. Using advanced neuroscience tools combined with innovative viral-mediated circuit mapping technique, this research proposal seeks to decipher complex vagal afferent-efferent circuits that influence pancreatic function and systemic glucose homeostasis. It is our hope that the results from proposed studies can provide novel mechanistic insight into the neural control of whole-body metabolic homeostasis.

Congratulations to Drs. Atasoy and Cui!