Neuroendocrine Control of Energy Balance
Our laboratory’s overarching goal seeks to understand the neuroendocrine systems regulating energy balance and motivated behaviors. Using multiple approaches from the cell to the whole organism and extensively examine the role of various neuroendocrine signaling systems (e.g., GLP-1, leptin, amylin, CCK, serotonin, glutamate, and dopamine) in peripheral and central control of food intake and body weight regulation.
Overall, our research program takes a novel systems-neuroscience approach aimed at enhancing the development of realistic pharmacological-based therapeutics to treat obesity and associated comorbidities (e.g. obesity, eating disorders, diabetes, drug addiction and nausea / malaise).
GIP receptor agonism blocks chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
In collaboration with Eli Lilly, this work demonstrates in three different mammalian species that GIPR signaling is capable of antagonizing emesis and nausea induced by chemotherapy treatment by counteracting the shift toward an excitatory glutamatergic signaling in areas of the brain critical for the mediation of emesis and nausea. These results highlight a potential new clinical use for GIP analogs to increase the efficacy of current therapeutic regimes for the treatment of nausea and emesis in oncology patients.