The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded $9,920,607 to a team of researchers including Mengjie Chen, PhD, and Chuan He, PhD, from the University of Chicago.
The five-year grant will support research examining gene expression and regulatory activity in multiple metabolic cells—specifically alterations to messenger RNA (mRNA)—that lead to the development of type 2 diabetes and obesity, with the goal of identifying potential targets for innovative treatments for the chronic conditions.
The team will be led by Rohit N. Kulkarni, MD, PhD, the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation Endowed Chair and Co-Head of the Section on Islet & Regenerative Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center, affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Kulkarni will serve as the Lead Principal Investigator (PI) on the collaborative project, which also includes investigators from the University of Kentucky and the University of Pennsylvania.
"We are thrilled to receive this competitive NIH grant, which will significantly advance our research efforts," said Kulkarni. "This project represents a unique opportunity to explore an emerging frontier in diabetes and obesity research. By collaborating with colleagues from our partner institutions, we aim to uncover fundamental knowledge that could help gain critical insights into these complex metabolic diseases. Our ultimate goal is to develop innovative therapies that can alleviate the burden of diabetes and obesity, improving the lives of millions of people worldwide."
In individuals with type 2 diabetes, the body becomes less responsive to insulin, leading to elevated blood sugar levels. Obesity exacerbates insulin resistance, creating a cycle that increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and complicates its management. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes and obesity has risen dramatically worldwide in recent decades. These conditions are linked to numerous health problems, including cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and other metabolic disorders.
The NIDDK award will provide crucial support for the team to take a new approach to the study of type 2 diabetes and obesity. Their research project, entitled “Epitranscriptomics in human obesity and type 2 diabetes,” addresses the two chronic diseases through a single lens, examining multiple metabolic cells—pancreatic islets, adipose (fat), skeletal muscle and blood cells—for the root cause for metabolic dysfunction.
Chuan He is the John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UChicago, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He specializes in chemical and biological tools to study dynamic and reversible RNA and DNA methylation in gene expression regulation, which will help the team examine how such changes mediate metabolic disease.
Mengjie Chen is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Human Genetics and Statistics at UChicago. She has developed new methodologies for analysis of data emerging from genomics related research, which will be used to interpret the genetic and epigenomic data on obesity and diabetes for the project.
Additional investigators on the project include Philip A. Kern, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology at the University of Kentucky whose research has focused on studying adipose and muscle biology, as well as clinical research related to obesity, insulin resistance, inflammation and type 2 diabetes; and Ali Naji, MD, PhD, Professor of Surgery, Associate Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, whose research has focused on islet biology and immune pathogenesis of autoimmune diabetes.
Adapted from a press release published by the Joslin Diabetes Center
