Projects Awarded

2020

Mehmet Furkan Burak, MD, Research Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health – Identification of immunometabolic alterations in adipo-pulmonary axis to treat obesity related asthma

Andrea G. Edlow, MD, MSc,  Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School – Fetal programming of mesolimbic dopamine signaling as a driver of transgenerational obesity (renewal)

Maarten Hulsmans, PhD, Instructor in Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School – Resolving macrophage heterogeneity of human atrial remodeling at single-cell level

Jacqueline M. Lane, PhD, Instructor in Anesthesia, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School – The circadian clock as a treatment for obesity: developing an accurate, easy to use, and clinically meaningful measure of circadian disruption

Carmen Monthe-Dreze, MD, Instructor in Pediatrics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School – The Placenta and Pro-Resolving Superfamily of Mediators: New Insights into Intergenerational Obesity

Jingyi Qian, PhD, Research Fellow in Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School – Effects of Circadian Misalignment and Meal Timing on Metabolite Profiles

Margaret A Stefater, MD, PhD, Instructor in Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School – Using Intestinal Epithelial Organoids to Study Durability of and Mechanisms for Roux Limb Remodeling after Gastric Bypass Surgery​

Marc Wein, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School – The role of salt inducible kinases in obesity-associated systemic viral pathogenesis

Davene R. Wright, PhD,  Faculty of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare – Decision to Initiate Lifestyle Changes for Childhood Obesity (DIsCCO)

2019

Laura Dichtel, MD, MHS Instructor in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School- Molecular Mechanisms of Growth Hormone Action in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Lindsay T. Fourman, MD Instructor in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School- Metabolic Sequelae of In Utero HIV Exposure: A Pilot Study

Frankie D. Heyward, PhD Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Rosen Lab in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School- Determining the Direct Transcriptional Targets of STAT3 in AgRP Neurons

Jacqueline Marie Lauer, PhD, MPH Research Fellow, Boston Children’s Hospital- Assessing the Relationship Between Environmental Enteric Dysfunction and Poor Growth Via a Newly Developed 11-Plex Assay

Jordi Merino, RD, PhD Instructor in Medicine, Diabetes Unit and Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital- Clinical and Physiological Characterization of Genetic Variation Influencing Dietary Intake

Sarbattama Sen, MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital- The Role of Specialized Pro-Resolving Lipid Mediators in Linking Maternal Obesity with Offspring Asthma

2018

Andrea Edlow, MD, MSc Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital – Fetal origins of obesity and metabolic syndrome

Sara Looby, PhD, ANP-BC (Co-Principal Investigator with Kathleen Fitch, MSN, FNP-BC) Assistant Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital –Exploring sweetener knowledge and consumption in people living with HIV

Samir Softic, MD, MSc Instructor in Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital – Pathways of Fructose Metabolism

Vibha Singhal, MD, MSc Instructor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital – Determinants of Beta Cell Function Following Sleeve Gastrectomy in Adolescents

Chien Wen Su, PhD Instructor in Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center – Helminth infection confers resistance to high fat diet-induced obesity

2017

Mengyao Ella Li, BS, MS, PhD Research Fellow, Joslin Diabetes Center– Contribution of gut microbiome to exercise training-generated beneficial effects

Pouneh K. Fazeli, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital– Changes in Marrow Adipose Tissue in Response to Estradiol Cyclicity

Marie-France Hivert, MD, MMSC Associate Professor, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare– How to reach women of reproductive age with obesity to support weight loss before pregnancy?

Seth Rakoff-Nahoum, MD, PhD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Boston Childrens Hospital– Development of Ecologically-Rational Nutribiotics and Probiotics for the Pre-term Gut Microbiome

Christian Rask-Madsen, MD, PhD Assistant Investigator, Joslin Diabetes Center– Endothelial Dysfunction in Obesity and Intestinal Stem Cell Function

Sarbattama Sen, MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital– Maternal Obesity, Breastmilk Composition and Offspring Growth

Changzheng Yuan, BM, MSc, ScD Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health– Obesity over the adult life course and late-life subjective cognitive function

Markella Zanni, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital– Testing a Novel Hormonal Strategy to Reduce Myocardial Steatosis and Improve Cardiac Function among People Living with HIV

2016

Abdelfattah El Ouaamari, PhD Instructor in Medicine, Joslin Diabetes Center – Unraveling the neuro-anatomy of the endocrine pancreas

Kriston Ganguli, MD Instructor in Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital – The use of probiotic metabolites in reducing the risk factors for necrotizing enterocolitis

Ida Hatoum, Sc.D. Instructor in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital – Intergenerational effects of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass

Maureen Leonard, MD Instructor of Pediatrics, Mass General Hospital for Children – Early Environmental Factors Predictive of Autoimmunity in Infants at Risk of Celiac Disease (competing renewal)

Deirdre Tobias, D.Sc. Instructor of Medicine; Associate Epidemiologist, Harvard Medical School; Brigham and Women’s Hospital – Joint relationships between obesity and cardiometabolic risk with postmenopausal breast cancer risk

Chien Wen Su, PhD Instructor in Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center – Helminth infection confers resistance to high fat diet-induced obesity

2015

Karen Bernstein, MD Instructor in Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital — Effects of caloric restriction on post-operative complications in sarcoma patients treated with pre-operative radiation therapy

Lauren Gehler Fiechtner, MD Instructor in Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital — Emerging early life risk factors for childhood obesity: an examination of diet and antibiotics in infants

Elizabeth L. Hohmann, MD Associate Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital — Therapeutic targeting of gut microbiota for human obesity and metabolism

Janet Lo, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital — Nutritional and Gastrointestinal Factors in Low Bone Density of HIV Disease

Kathleen Joan Sweadner, PH.D Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology in the Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital — Metabolism in a mutant mouse with elevated muscle activity