Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2012

Mentor:           Jeffrey Zigman          
Department:               Internal Medicine
Room number:           Y6.220D
Mail Code:                 9077
Phone number:          648-8621
E-mail:                        Jeffrey.zigman@utstouhwestern.edu
Project title:                Mechanisms controlling ghrelin secretion

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):      

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):       2009-0377

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)     animal-based research

Brief Description of Project:

Ghrelin is a peptide hormone that plays many important roles in the body.  The Zigman lab is primary focused on ghrelin’s effects on various types of eating behavior (including eating for pleasure and stress-induced eating), mood, and blood glucose control.  The mechanisms controlling ghrelin release remain largely un-described.  We have generated several cell-based and animal based models with which to investigate ghrelin secretion.  For this project, we intend to use these models to determine circulating hormones and intracellular signaling mechanisms that control ghrelin secretion.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

I served as mentor for the following UTSW Medical Student Summer rotation students: Jakub Woloszyn 2008 and Neha Chaudhary 2009.  Jakub’s contributions led to co-authorship on the following publication:
Perello M, Sakata I, Birnbaum S, Chuang J-C, Osborne-Lawrence S, Rovinsky SA, Woloszyn J, Yanagisawa M, Lutter M*, Zigman JM*.  Ghrelin increases the rewarding value of high fat diet in an orexin-dependent manner.  Biol Psychiatry 2010; 67:880-886.