Guorui Deng, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Grobe’s laboratory, has been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship (19POST34380239) from the American heart Association for his project entitled “Mechanisms of angiotensin AT1A signal transduction in AgRP neurons for metabolic rate control”.   The objective of this project is to understand biological and cellular process(es) responsible for development and maintenance of obesity, a global health problem and a prevalent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Current anti-obesity treatment is restricted to drugs which reduce appetite or digestion. However, careful quantitative long-term studies demonstrate that human body mass (and resistance to weight loss) is maintained primarily through intrinsic mechanisms that are mediated through neural pathways regulating Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and thus resting energy expenditure – yet no safe and effective currently available treatments stimulate RMR. By increasing our knowledge of how RMR is controlled, we can develop new treatments to stimulate RMR to combat the obesity epidemic.

Uday Singh, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Huxing’s laboratory, has been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship (#19POST34450083) from the American Heart Association (AHA) for his project entitled “The role of PVN MC4R circuits in obesity-associated hypertension”.  This grant proposal will study how neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus (PVN) regulate sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) affecting cardiovascular function. Sympathetic overactivity is a key feature in obesity-induced hypertension, a significant risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases including stroke, myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure. While it is known that the PVN plays an important role in the regulation of SNA, the underlying neural circuits through which PVN neurons mediate obesity-associated sympathetic overdrive and hypertension is not fully understood. This proposal will provide critical information on how PVN neurons contribute to obesity-associated hypertension.