Kei Sakamoto, Programme Leader in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit and Alexandar Jovanovic, Ninewells Hospital Medical School, University of Dundee have been awarded £168,000 by the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
Heart and circulatory disease is the UK's biggest killer, and new treatments are urgently needed to combat it. Some people develop heart disease because of genetic errors that affect the normal function of the heart and circulatory system. Kei and Alexandar will study an enzyme called AMPK, which functions to co-ordinate energy balance in our bodies. Some people inherit errors in AMPK, which can damage the heart by causing it to store too much energy in the form of glucose. This can lead to the debilitating condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Kei and Alexander will look at ways to restore normal energy balance, potentially leading to novel new treatments for these heart conditions.
The main grant recipient, Kei Sakamoto, used to host a fitness program on Japanese TV, but was keen to find out how exercise could help people fight obesity and metabolic disease at the molecular levels. He therefore decided to undertake research for his PhD at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, USA, where he became an expert on the molecular physiology of exercise and muscle metabolism. He then moved to Dundee to join Dario Alessi's team in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit in 2003, setting up his own independent research group in the Unit in 2006. His team currently studies the molecular pathways by which nutrients, hormones, and exercise coordinately regulate energy balance in our bodies, and how deregulation of these systems causes metabolic disorders including cardiovascular disease.
Roger Hunter, who recently finished his PhD at the University of Bristol with Dr Ingeborg Hers, has been appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow to undertake this project.
Heart and circulatory disease is the UK's biggest killer, and new treatments are urgently needed to combat it. Some people develop heart disease because of genetic errors that affect the normal function of the heart and circulatory system. Kei and Alexandar will study an enzyme called AMPK, which functions to co-ordinate energy balance in our bodies. Some people inherit errors in AMPK, which can damage the heart by causing it to store too much energy in the form of glucose. This can lead to the debilitating condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Kei and Alexander will look at ways to restore normal energy balance, potentially leading to novel new treatments for these heart conditions.
The main grant recipient, Kei Sakamoto, used to host a fitness program on Japanese TV, but was keen to find out how exercise could help people fight obesity and metabolic disease at the molecular levels. He therefore decided to undertake research for his PhD at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, USA, where he became an expert on the molecular physiology of exercise and muscle metabolism. He then moved to Dundee to join Dario Alessi's team in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit in 2003, setting up his own independent research group in the Unit in 2006. His team currently studies the molecular pathways by which nutrients, hormones, and exercise coordinately regulate energy balance in our bodies, and how deregulation of these systems causes metabolic disorders including cardiovascular disease.
Roger Hunter, who recently finished his PhD at the University of Bristol with Dr Ingeborg Hers, has been appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow to undertake this project.