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| Ashrafi, Kaveh |
| Barber, Diane L |
| Bernstein, Harold S. |
| Black, Brian L |
| Blanc, Paul D |
| Boushey, Homer A |
| Broaddus, V Courtney |
| Brown, James K |
| Caughey, George H |
| Chapman, Harold A |
| Charo, Israel F |
| Chatterjee, Kanu |
| Chuang, Pao-Tien |
| Clyman, Ronald I |
| Conklin, Bruce R |
| Coughlin, Shaun R |
| Derynck, Rik M |
| Dobbs, Leland G |
| Eisner, Mark D |
| Engel, Joanne N |
| Erle, David J |
| Fahy, John Vincent |
| Farese, Robert V |
| Fielding, Christopher J |
| Fielding, Phoebe |
| Fineman, Jeffrey R |
| Glantz, Stanton A |
| Grossman, William |
| Hawgood, Samuel |
| Ingraham, Holly A |
| Jan, Lily Y |
| Kan, Yuet W |
| Kane, John P |
| Kornberg, Thomas B |
| Kurtz, Theodore W |
| Kwok, Pui-Yan |
| Lazarus, Stephen C |
| Malloy, Mary J. |
| Martin, Gail R |
| Matthay, Michael A |
| Mcdonald, Donald M |
| Mikawa, Takashi |
| Minor, Daniel L |
| Mostov, Keith E |
| Nadel, Jay A |
| Ordahl, Charles P |
| Pitas, Robert E |
| Reiter, Jeremy F. |
| Rosen, Steven D |
| Shaw, Robin M. |
| Sheppard, Dean |
| Simpson, Paul C |
| Stainier, Didier Y. R. |
| Wang, Rong |
| Weiner, Orion D |
| Weisgraber, Karl H |
| Weiss, Arthur |
| Weiss, Ethan J |
| Werb, Zena |
| Wiener-Kronish, Jeanine |
| Young, William L |
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CVRI Scientists
Kaveh Ashrafi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
Genetics of fat regulation and neurobiology of feeding behavior
Summary:
Obesity is a major risk factor associated with many diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases, arthritis, and certain forms of cancers. Obesity is a global epidemic common to all socio-economic and age groups. The prevalence of obesity reflects the combination of high calorie diets with sedentary lifestyles. However, genetic predispositions play profound roles in determination of an individual's body fat and the progression of obesity related disorders. Fat regulation is under tight control of a complex network of checks and balances between the feeding regulatory centers in the brain and fat storage and energy utilizing sites in the body. How genetic and environmental factor interact to impact body fat content and how excess fat accumulation causes disease processes are poorly understood.
To identify genes that underlie fat regulation we use the genetically tractable worm C. elegans. This microscopic worm has been used extensively to study animal development, aging, and pathways implicated in human diseases. This is because it many of its 20,000 genes have significant similarity to human genes. Using genetic and genomic techniques, we have identified over 400 genes that, when inactivated, impact fat regulation in these animals. These include genes whose mammalian counterparts were previously shown to be important in fat regulation as well as many genes previously unassociated with fat content. The shared ancestry of known mammalian and C. elegans fat regulatory genes suggests that many of the newly identified genes similarly impact fat regulation in mammals. Our efforts are now aimed at elucidating the modes of function and regulation of the newly identified genes. We have already shown that some of these genes function in the C. elegans nervous system to centrally regulate fat and feeding pathways while other genes function at the sites of fat storage to regulate metabolism. Based on our findings we have initiated collaborative studies to identify mammalian obesity genes.
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