News & Research

    Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Insulin determines developmental organization of hypothalamic circui

General Research Subject: Obesity

Focus: Insulin Action, Insulin Action\Transgenic Models, Integrated Physiology, Integrated Physiology\Regulation of Food Intake, Obesity, Obesity\Animal Models

Type of Grant: Mentor Based Postdoctoral Fellowship

Project Start Date: July 1, 2012

Project End Date: June 30, 2016

Research Description

Type II diabetes has been called the plague of the 21st century.  Emerging data suggest that overfeeding during pregnancy can have a long lasting influence on the child that can lead to the development of diabetes later in life.  It is not known what the factors are during pregnancy that bring about these long lasting changes in the offspring.  Our research focuses on this critical issue and will test specific hypotheses to develop therapeutic strategies to diminish the impact of perinatal events on diabetes development.

Research Profile

Mentor: Tamas Laszlo Horvath, DVM, PhD  Postdoctoral Fellow: Luis  Varela, PhD

What area of diabetes research does your project cover?  What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?

My laboratory studies the central component of energy metabolism with particular interest in the role of the melanocortin system.  In the project that is supported by ADA, we are attempting to understand how environmental factors affect the development of the hypothalamic controller of glucose metabolism and how maternal obesity may impact the development of metabolic impairments in the offspring.  If successful, our project will inform on the negative or beneficial role of maternal metabolic status on vulnerability to childhood or adult onset metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes.  

If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?

We will be able to advice pregnant women how to control their metabolic status to ensure prevention of vulnerability to develop diabetes in their children.

Why is it important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research?  What role will this award play in your research efforts?

My expertise lies within the central regulation of peripheral energy metabolism and glucose utilization.  To assure the my basic research projects have clinical relevance, I am eager to relate my studies to metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.

In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?

I believe that the future of diabetes care is in prevention.