FOEDRC member Matthew Potthoff successfully renewed his grant from the NIH

Matthew Potthoff, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Pharmacology and member of the FOEDRC has successfull renewed his grant from the National Institute of Health entitled “Regulation of Energy Homeostasis by FGF21”.

This 4-year $2,096,528 award seeks to understand how the hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) promotes weight loss. Obesity is a major contributor to the epidemic of metabolic diseases including dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and type II diabetes. Numerous studies suggest that increasing energy expenditure can effectively decrease body weight. However, no current therapeutic compounds safely or selectively activate energy expenditure. The proposed research aims at understanding a novel hormonal pathway that regulates body weight and metabolic flexibility with the ultimate goal to develop new treatments for obesity and obesity-associated diseases. Specifically, this proposal examines how the endocrine hormone fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) decreases body weight during obesity by increasing energy expenditure.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Matthew Potthoff!