Welcome to the Newsroom
The IDOM Newsroom is your one stop place for announcements, news and events for the:
- Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
- Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism
- Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center
- Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center
Several Penn Medicine physicians and staff members are mentioned throughout a multi-story supplement on diabetes appearing today in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.
Scott Soleimanpour, MD, a research fellow working in the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, was profiled.
Doris Stoffers, MD, PhD, associate professor of Medicine, in whose lab Soleimanpour works, is also mentioned. Soleimanpour's basic research on beta cells, clinical duties at the Rodebaugh Diabetes Center, and experiences living with Type 1 diabetes are featured. "I have my little Star Trek Enterprise banner over there," he says pointing to a corkboard decorated with a small "to boldly go where no one has gone before" banner. Soleimanpour says he's fascinated by "that whole idea of exploring new frontiers, being able to think of new ideas that no one has ever thought about."
Facing Down Diabetes - Nov. 19, 2009
In an article about managing diabetes on 54 cents a day, Mark Schutta, MD, medical director of the Penn Rodebaugh Diabetes Center, notes that “there’s no doubt that some of the new drugs can be a great help to many patients.” They can offer game-changing benefits like weight loss or a lower risk for hypoglycemia, he says. If cost is an issue – as a month’s supply can cost more than $100 or $200 if paid out of pocket – a typical patient who is newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes could conceivably control his blood sugar and help prevent heart attacks and strokes for about half a dollar a day.
Tracking hunger hormones.
Why do we eat? Rexford Ahima, MD, PhD is trying to answer that question by studying the hormones that regulate hunger and appetite. "Our main research question is how fat cells communicate with the brain, liver and muscle," said Ahima, who directs the obesity unit of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Disrupting these messages can cause overeating, obesity and diabetes.
As men age, their testosterone levels naturally drop. But for some men, the male sex hormone may sink so low that they not only lose all interest in sex, but suffer more falls, have memory problems and experience anemia. Articles in the Philadelphia Business Journal, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and St. Paul Pioneer-Press highlight a Penn-led study which will explore whether applying testosterone gel to the abdomen, torso or upper arms can reverse those effects.
The study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health and coordinated at the University of Pennsylvania. The men will be tracked for two years to see if the group getting testosterone has significant improvement in vitality and wellbeing, said Peter Snyder, MD, principal investigator and professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. Previous studies have linked low testosterone to thinking difficulties, low energy, falls, brittle bones, anemia and even heart problems. The evidence from these studies is "tantalizing but not convincing," Dr. Snyder said. "I think there is considerable evidence that testosterone treatment might do good in all these areas, and I think it's worthwhile spending our time finding out."
>> View Penn School of Medicine Press Release
>> View Philadelphia Business Journal
Link between diabetes and heart disease scrutinized
The link between diabetes and heart disease is well-known -- diabetics are two to four times more likely to have cardiovascular disease than nondiabetics, and two-thirds will die of an early heart attack or stroke. But the link itself is poorly understood. Fat is "packaged" differently in diabetes, researchers now realize, and can cause a low-grade inflammation in obese people that might contribute to both diabetes and heart disease.
Fatty acids from weight gain also cue the liver to make too much "bad" LDL cholesterol and too little "good" HDL cholesterol, said Daniel Rader, MD, director of preventive cardiology, in the Los Angeles Times. HDL molecules normally remove cholesterol from the fatty plaques in the arteries that can rupture and cause heart attacks or strokes. The low HDL levels in diabetes allow these risky plaques to grow, he explained. Now researchers realize that fat tissue itself can become inflamed, and this could explain how obesity induces both diabetes and heart disease.
In 2003, studies in both mice and people showed that fat tissue harbors macrophages that increase in number with obesity. "These macrophages spew out inflammatory molecules that circulate in the body and cripple the ability of insulin to work in other cells, leading to diabetes," said Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, also commenting in the LA Times article.
IDOM receives Challenge Grant from the NIDDK
Congratulations to Dr. Mitch Lazar for receiving a Challenge Grant from the NIDDK for his project, " Genome-wide Epigenetic Control of Circadian Metabolism by Heme Receptor Rev-erb." The proposed experiments aim to determine the extent that Rev-erb contributes to, or even controls, circadian and metabolic processes and the crosstalk that occurs between them. Ultimately, greater insight into the regulation of circadian rhythm and metabolism by Rev-erb will contribute greatly to our understanding of how these physiological processes are interrelated, and potentially dysregulated in obesity and diabetes, which are epidemic in the United States.
"Connecting Obesity, Aging, and Diabetes"
Congratulations to Dr. Rex Ahima for making Nature Medicine News and Views. Experiments in mice suggest that obesity increases the production of free radicals in fat cells, shortens telomeres and activates the p53 tumor suppressor and the promotion of insulin resistance.
IDOM Faculty to serve on JCEM Editorial Board
Congratulations to Dr. Michael Rickels for being invited to serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism from January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2013.
Congratulations to Dr. Rex Ahima for being elected to serve on the nominating committee of the Obesity Society for 2009 - 2011.
Inner Workings of Molecular Thermostat Point to Pathways to Fight Diabetes, Obesity, According to Penn Study
Best known as the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin, the protein that makes blood red, heme also plays a role in chemical detoxification and energy metabolism within the cell. Heme levels are tightly maintained, and with good reason: Too little heme prevents cell growth and division; excessive amounts of heme are toxic.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a molecular circuit involving heme that helps maintain proper metabolism in the body, providing new insights into metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. The work builds on 2007 findings from the same team, led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of Penn’s Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, showing that a protein called Rev-erbα coordinates the daily cycles of heme. The new research, published online in Genes & Development, makes it clear that Rev-erbα, by controlling the production of heme, also plays a key role in maintaining the body’s correct metabolism. This happens through a molecular pathway that allows the cell to monitor and adjust internal heme levels, creating more when heme levels fall, and slowing it down when levels rise.
‘Brown fat’ may be key in obesity battle
Recent discoveries are highlighting a good type of fat, called “brown fat,’’ that offers a potential new weapon to scientists looking for ways to fight obesity.
Unlike better-known white fat, brown fat converts stored energy into heat. Two groups of Boston researchers have reported finding cellular switches that can be flipped on to make brown fat cells out of ordinary skin cells and other types of cells. Still, researchers cautioned that brown fat discoveries are far from a treatment for obesity. The physiological effects of increasing brown fat will need to be carefully examined, commented Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism in the Boston Globe, but because brown fat’s normal job in the body is to burn energy, it is an exciting new avenue for research. “There is hope in terms of a new direction, but it’s still early-stage,” he says.
IDOM Scientists receive funding from Stimulus package.
Congratulations to Drs. Rexford Ahima and Nancy Cooke for receiving awards from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009!
Dr. Rexford Ahima, Associate Professor of Medicine, has received a stimulus award to support a University of Pennsylvania undergraduate student in the summers of 2009 and 2010. The project will investigate the role of a lipid droplet protein, Tail-Interacting Protein of 47kDa (TIP47), in the pathogenesis of fatty liver and diabetes.
Dr. Nancy E. Cooke, Professor of Medicine and Genetics, has received two stimulus awards for summer students. The first, entitled “Activation of the human placental gene expression” will fund a talented University of Pennsylvania undergraduate to explore remote regulatory elements within the human growth hormone chromatin locus that are of critical importance in activating the expression of gestational hormones during the second and third trimester of pregnancy.
The second stimulus award entitled “LCR activation of the human growth hormone gene” will fund a second talented University of Pennsylvania undergraduate to explore the role of non-coding RNA transcripts in directing pituitary somatotrope differentiation and growth hormone gene expression. Both of these studies involve the creation and analysis of specially engineered transgenic mice.
"HONOR ROLL" OF BEST HOSPITALS IN AMERICA
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) is ranked as one of the top 10 hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World
Report, for the second consecutive year. The publication's prestigious annual ranking of hospitals placed HUP eighth out of more than 4,800
facilities surveyed.
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania was the only hospital in the Philadelphia region, and one of only 21 hospitals nationwide, to receive the "Honor Roll" recognition for excellence in multiple specialties.
HUP Endocrinology is ranked tenth out of more than 1,000 hospitals!
For more information, visit U.S.News & World Report's web site.
Prosperity’s Plague
July 27, 2009 -
Researchers have linked a growing number of chronic diseases to the metabolic disorder known as insulin resistance; two general theories have emerged about its mechanism. Unambiguous evidence on the initial stages of disease is missing, making it an excruciatingly difficult task to pin down the causes at the cellular and molecular level.
“The field is in a funny stage right now,” comments Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism in Science magazine, “It’s gone from having too few candidate explanations [for insulin resistance] to having too many.” Now when someone comes along with yet another possibility, Lazar says, “you go, ‘Okay, get in line, buddy.’ There are a lot of things that have to be figured out.”
>> Read Science ArticleDr. Kendra Bence was recently awarded an RO1 grant for $1,968,750 from NIH/NIDDK for Neuronal Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases in Metabolism. The project began 7/1/2009 and will end 6/30/2014.
Dr. Wei Guo was awarded the American Heart Association Established Investigator Award.
New Role Discovered for Molecule Important in Development of Pancreas, Penn Study Finds - Implications for New Diabetes Treatments
July 9, 2009 - For years researchers have been searching for a way to treat diabetics by reactivating their insulin-producing beta cells, to no avail. Now, they may be one step closer...
“The protein, Pdx1, is a pivotal molecule in the regulation of beta-cell development and we hope this type of information could help in efforts to generate beta-cell replacements for the treatment of diabetes," says senior author Doris Stoffers, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Stoffers is also a member of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at Penn.
Fulbright Africa Scholar
July 09, 2009 - Dr. Charlene Comphor has been selected as a Fulbright Africa Scholar for the spring semester 2010.
She will be doing adolescent obesity research and fostering research productivity among faculty at the University of Botswana.
Appetite-Stimulating Hormone is First Potential Medical Treatment for Frailty in Older Women
17 Jun 2009 – Older women suffering from clinical frailty stand to benefit from the first potential medical treatment for the condition, according to a study presented last week by Penn Medicine researchers at ENDO, The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting. Ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, was... Read more
Joseph Baur, Ph/D receives award from the American Federation for Aging Research
Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Baur for receiving an award of $75,000 from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR). Dr. Baur will try to understand whether cells with more mitochondria function better.
Congratulations to Anne R. Cappola, MD, ScM for her two recent awards:
- The Austrian Award for Junior faculty presented during the Department of Medicine Research Day
- The Edward Rose Teaching Award for outstanding teaching and mentorship of Endocrinology Fellows in either clinical practice or in research.