News

Latest Preprint from Team in the Brain-Body Space

 

In lactating mothers, the high calcium (Ca2+) demand for milk production triggers significant bone resorption. While estrogen would normally counteract excessive bone loss and maintain sufficient bone formation during this postpartum period, this sex steroid drops precipitously after giving birth. Here, we report that brain-derived CCN3 (Cellular Communication Network factor 3) secreted from KISS1 neurons of the arcuate nucleus (ARCKISS1) fills this void and functions as a potent osteoanabolic factor to promote bone mass in lactating females. Read More in bioRxiv Preprint

From the Gut Group, Archana and Fernanda on sex-differences in visceral gut pain.

 

The latest group effort between the Julius/Ingraham/Bayrer/Brierley Labs highlights the importance of EC cells in gut visceral pain and anxiety. Link to Paper and Figures 

Joni Joins UC Berkeley Faculty 8/1/2023

Part of the lab celebrating after Joni signed his offer letter to join the faculty at UCB - he is starting his lab in the Department of Integrative Sciences in the College of Natural Resources. He hopes to be in his lab in late Fall after renovations. Check out his plans for the new lab and exciting research program aimed at understanding how the brain control lipid homeostasis (Link to website).

Ingraham receives the 2023 Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award
Joni's Paper on Trade-offs in Sex Biased Diseases (Science)

ABSTRACT

Adaptations to infectious and dietary pressures shape mammalian physiology and disease risk. How such adaptations affect sex-biased diseases remains understudied. Here, we show that sex-dependent hepatic gene programs confer a robust (~300%) survival advantage for male mice during lethal bacterial infection. The transcription factor BCL6, which masculinizes hepatic gene expression at puberty, is essential for this advantage. However, protection by BCL6 comes at a cost during conditions of dietary excess, resulting in overt fatty liver and glucose intolerance in males. Deleting hepatic BCL6 reverses these phenotypes but markedly lowers male survival during infection, thus establishing a sex-dependent tradeoff between host defense and metabolic systems. Our findings offer strong evidence that some current sex-biased diseases are rooted in ancient evolutionary trade-offs between immunity and metabolism.

Accepted 8/29/22 Science

Muriel Receives Emerging Physician Scientist NIDDK Supplement

NIDDK Mission Statement

The program will provide supplementary funds to support advanced research opportunities for exceptional emerging physician-scientists (hereafter, "candidates") holding an MD or equivalent or MD/PhD degrees, and who are early in their research careers. The supplement is intended to allow candidates to expand their research experience to help them transition beyond their clinical training to the next stage of their research careers as physician-scientists.

 

 

Ingraham Receives EB Astwood Award in Outstanding Basic Science

 

The Edwin B. Astwood Award for Outstanding Research in Basic Science, Endocrine Society (2023)

In recognition of the Society’s commitment to scientific excellence, the Endocrine Society is pleased to announce that it has restored the Edwin B. Astwood Award to the Laureate Awards to be presented at ENDO2023. Originally awarded from 1967 and renamed to honor the scientific contributions of the late Dr. Edwin B. Astwood, this laureate award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of endocrinology via their outstanding basic science research.

Joni Receives Prestigious K99 from NIDDK

I will be exploring sex differences in host immunity for the next few years! Thanks to everyone who helped me on the pathway to independence.

@hollyingrahamSF

@DrEmilyGoldberg

@SuneilKoliwad

 and Jackie Maher.

 

Follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/joni_nikkanen

Muriel Receives Weill Award for Junior Investigators in Neurosciences

 

Drs. Lin Yuan (Julius Lab) and Muriel Babey (Ingraham Lab) were awarded a Weill Award for Junior Investigators in the Neurosciences Impacted by COVID-19 Setbacks in the amount of $50,000

Combining their basic and clinical expertise, this team of junior scientists will begin probing a new model to better understand diabetic neuropathy.

Project Title: Mechanisms of sensory nerve damage in type 2 diabetes – a role for insulin dysregulation?

 

Joni Receives PBBR Postdoctoral Independent Research Award

Independent Postdoctoral Fellow Research Award

$15,000 one-year fellowship for meetings, courses, or research expenses

These fellowships are designed to encourage creative and independent research driven by postdoctoral scholars. The fellowships support UCSF postdocs who wish to explore biomedical research directions that are not directly linked to the research interests of their postdoctoral mentor and require the engagement of an additional collaborator or co-mentor. The Call for Proposals for the Independent Postdoctoral Fellow Research Award is announced once a year. Joni has been looking at evolutionary tradeoffs as a way to explain our current sex-biased diseases, specifically at the interface between host defense responses and metabolism in the liver.