Speaker Biographies from the Neural Control of Appetite Lablinks Meeting Thank you for attending the Neural Control of Appetite, a Cell Press LabLinks meeting, on Tuesday, May 7, 2013. Please see the full list of speaker biographies below. Ronald Lechan, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine, Sackler School, Tufts University Synopsis The anatomy and physiology of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH)-synthesizing neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is the focus of our research. We study (1) the choroid plexis and cerebral spinal fluid in the transport of T4 into the brain; (2) the effect of type 2 deiodinase in ependymal cells (tanycytes) on feedback inhibition of thyroid hormone on hypophysiotropic TRH neurons in the PVN; (3) leptin-mediated paradoxic reduction in the biosynthesis of TRH in the PVN during fasting; and (4) the anatomical characterization, nuclear and cytoplasmic distribution, and potential interaction of thyroid hormone receptors in thyroid-hormone-responsive and -unresponsive TRH neurons in the brain and their response to hormonal manipulation. Bradford Lowell, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine, Endocrine Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Neuroscience Faculty, Harvard Medical School Synopsis We utilize genetic engineering, in conjunction with electrophysiology, optogenetics, pharmacogenetics, and rabies mapping, to elucidate central neurocircuits controlling feeding behavior, body-weight homeostasis, and fuel metabolism in mice. Specifically, transgenic, knockout, knockin, and Cre-dependent AAV viral approaches (for delivery of optogenetic, DREADD, and monosynaptic rabies reagents) are used in the manipulation and mapping of neuronal circuits. The goal of these studies is to link neurobiologic processes within defined sets of neurons with specific behaviors and physiologic responses. The ultimate goal is to mechanistically understand the “neurocircuit basis” for regulation of food intake, energy expenditure, and glucose homeostasis. Given our expertise in gene knockout and transgenic technology, we can efficiently and rapidly create numerous lines of genetically engineered mice, important examples of which are neuron-specific ires-Cre knockin mice, which enable Cre-dependent AAV technology. This allows us to bring novel, powerful approaches to bear on the neural circuits underlying behavior and metabolism. Our combined use of mouse genetic engineering, brain- slice electrophysiology, and whole-animal physiology is ideally suited to the study of these problems. Umut Ozcan, MD Associate Professor, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Synopsis Dr. Umut Ozcan is an Associate Professor in the Division of Endocrinology at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has completed his research training at the Joslin Diabetes Center and the Harvard School of Public Health. The primary aim of the Ozcan laboratory is to delineate the molecular mechanisms of endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-stress-originated pathologies in obesity. The two main focus areas are insulin and leptin receptor signaling and their crosstalk with the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway. Dr. Ozcan's group employs a multidisciplinary approach that draws on mouse genetics, ER physiology and pathophysiology, biochemistry, chemical biology, and proteomics to identify key metabolic pathways that determine the cell’s response to physiologic and pathophysiologic ER stress. The ultimate goal of this integrated approach is to unravel the potential therapeutic targets in the UPR pathway in order to reduce ER stress in obesity and find a cure for obesity and obesity-related diseases. The Ozcan group has made seminal discoveries in these areas and is currently also working on potent drugs that could be future treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Maribel Rios, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Tufts University School of Medicine Synopsis Our laboratory uses molecular, biochemical, electrophysiological, behavioral, and genetic tools to ascertain the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the modulation of energy homeostasis and affective behavior. For this, we generate and study mice with central or site-specific deletion of BDNF. Our efforts are focused on defining brain neural circuits for which modulation by BDNF controls appetite and affective states and identifying the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the actions of this neurotrophin. Gorica Petrovich, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Boston College Synopsis Gorica Petrovich is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Boston College. She received a BS from the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the University of Belgrade in 1989. Under the mentorship of Larry Swanson, she earned her doctorate in Neurobiology from the University of Southern California in 1997. Her PhD thesis work used neuroanatomical methods to define emotion- and motivation-critical connections of the amygdala and the associated brain network. Her postdoctoral fellowship was in the field of behavioral neuroscience under the guidance of Michela Gallagher in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University. There, Petrovich began to examine the role of the environment in the control of feeding and the underlying brain substrates. Her current research program continues to investigate the motivation to eat and how it can be controlled by environmental cues. She uses rodent models to study how basic hunger mechanisms can be modulated by learning and stress and to study the underlying brain mechanisms and plasticity. Her work in animals is informative for understanding the control of appetite and eating in humans and maladaptive environmental influences that could lead to eating disorders. The NIH and NIDDK have funded her current and past research. Jeffrey Friedman, MD, PhD Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Marilyn M. Simpson Professor Laboratory of Molecular Genetics The Rockefeller University Synopsis Dr. Jeffrey Friedman is a physician scientist studying the genetic mechanisms that regulate body weight. Dr. Friedman's research on various aspects of obesity received national attention in late 1994, when it was announced that he and his colleagues had isolated the mouse ob gene and its human homologue. They subsequently found that injections of the encoded protein, leptin, decreases body weight of mice by reducing food intake and increasing energy expenditure. Current research is aimed at understanding the genetic basis of obesity in humans and the mechanisms by which leptin transmits its weight-reducing signal. He is currently a professor at The Rockefeller University and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1980, Dr. Friedman began his affiliation with The Rockefeller University, where he was awarded a PhD in 1986. He was appointed Assistant Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Rockefeller in 1986, promoted to Associate Investigator in 1991, and promoted to Investigator in 1997. Dr. Friedman received an MD from Albany Medial College in 1977 and completed a medical residency at Albany Medical College in 1980. Dr. Friedman’s work was referred to in Time Magazine's Best of Science Section in 1995 and 1996. Among his numerous honors and awards are Popular Science's Best of Science Award (1995), the Heinrich Wieland Prize (1996), the Jacobaeus Prize (1997), the Steven C. Beering Award (1999), the Endocrinology Transatlantic Medal (2000), the Rolf Luft Award from Karolinska Hospital (2000), election to the National Academy of Science (2001), the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Metabolic Research (2001), the Passano Award (2005), election to The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as a foreign member (2005), the Gairdner International Award (2005), the Kovalenko Medal (2006), the Danone International Prize (2007), the Keio Medical Science Prize (2009), the Shaw Prize for Life Sciences and Medicine (2009), recognition as a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate (2010), the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award (2010), the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2010), the Foundation IPSEN Endocrine Regulation Prize (2012), the BBVA Frontier of Knowledge Award (2013), and the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine (2013). Matthias Tschöp, MD Director, Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, Helmholtz Center, Research Center for Environmental Health Synopsis Matthias Tschöp's work focuses on gut-brain communication as a key circuitry that regulates adiposity, food intake, glucose homeostasis, and energy metabolism. In particular, he is concentrating on the potential of afferent signaling to provide a basis for new pharmacological or device-based treatments for obesity and diabetes. Dr. Tschöp received his MD from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich in 1994. He then spent 4 years as a resident in internal medicine and as a research fellow in neuroendocrinology at the Munich University Hospital before accepting an invitation for a postdoctoral fellowship at the Eli Lilly Research Laboratories. During the following 3 years, he discovered the role of ghrelin in the control of food intake, metabolism, and body weight. His paper in Nature on this matter has since become one of the most cited papers in modern metabolism research. Matthias Tschöp started his own operation in 2002, first at the DIfE and then in 2003 in Cincinnati, where the College of Medicine approved his promotion