Congratulation to Beatrice Filippi for being awarded a very prestigious MRC Career Development Fellowship (£1.4m) to support her research for the next 5 years to investigate how an area of the brain called Dorsal Vagal Complex (DVC) senses insulin and controls glucose metabolism and feeding behavior in animals.

Dr Filippi undertook postdoctoral research work in Dario Alessi’s lab (2007-2010) and made a major contribution to defining how the LKB1 tumour suppressor is regulated and also discovered that the MO25 scaffolding protein is a major regulator of numerous STE20 family protein kinases. After undertaking further postdoctoral work in the lab of Tony K.T. Lam at the University of Toronto, took up an independent position at the University of Leeds in August 2016 to work on insulin signalling in the brain.

At the University of Leeds Beatrice is studying how the brain collects inputs from around the body taking a ledger of the energy status in our organism and signals back to the peripheral organs through a coordinated hormonal signaling response. This is a crucial process required for a balanced food intake and to ensure steady levels of glucose in the blood. Any alteration of these hormonal and metabolic processes can lead to metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, which are rising among the world population and have caused huge health and socio-economic problems.

Overnutrition is the predominant cause of insulin resistance (impaired ability to respond to changes in insulin levels) both in peripheral organs and in the brain. When the brain becomes insulin resistant it loses the ability to maintain the energy balance in the body. Restoring the brain’s ability to modulate metabolic functions is very important to improve disease conditions associated with obesity and diabetes.

Beatrice’s research aims to uncover the molecular mechanism that trigger insulin resistance in the DVC and has the potential to identify novel pharmacological targets to counteract obesity and diabetes.

For further information and to apply for positions in her lab please contact Dr Filippi.