Overview

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I am an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Nutrition, and I serve as the Associate Director of the Pilot and Feasibility Program for the Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center. For the past 2 years I have worked with Dr. Bessesen to oversee this important program for our NORC, and I have gained an appreciation how important the NORC is in helping our early career scientists begin to develop their independent research programs. My research expertise is in pregnancy and early life exposures in the development of obesity and metabolic disease. Throughout my career, my research has focused on clinical studies combined with mechanistic investigations, which is typically done by incorporating primary human cell culture models into my research, allowing me to perform relevant translational research studies. My research skills span mitochondrial physiology, epigenetics, metabolism, endocrinology, exercise physiology and nutrition. Specifically, my early research projects focused on metabolic inflexibility in skeletal muscle tissue and cells from adult humans with obesity. This experience with human progenitor cell models led me to develop a similar model in infants to investigate phenotypes contributing to the propensity for obesity or insulin resistance later in life. My early independent career was supported by a BIRCWH K12 award and an independent K01 award, where I investigated epigenetic links between adverse intrauterine exposures and metabolic perturbations to muscle and adipose tissue in the offspring. This project matured into NIH R01 and an American Diabetes Association CORE award aimed at investigating the epigenetic mechanisms for, and human variability in, the obesity phenotype observed in progenitor cells from infants born to mothers with obesity. I recently completed investigations as Co-Investigator on an R01 from the NIH Director’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program where I oversaw a multi-tissue, multi-omic project aimed at understanding how the fetal ‘exposome’ impacts offspring obesity-related outcomes. Two new collaborative NIH project grants will extend our investigations of the early origins of obesity and metabolic disease by testing the impact of gestational stress and social disadvantage on infant MSC outcomes. With my background in obesity, nutrition, and exercise research, coupled with over 15 years of experience measuring metabolic phenotypes in offspring cells and tissues, I am committed to investigating these early origins of disordered metabolism that may contribute to the development of insulin resistance in offspring exposed to adverse conditions in utero.