Project Details
Projekt
GRK 1208: Hormonal Regulation of Energy Metabolism, Body Weight and Growth
Subject Area
Medicine
Term
from 2005 to 2014
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 823482
Hormones and endocrine feedback circuits are key regulators of development, differentiation, growth, and maintenance of an intact organism, and of processes related to aging and adaptation to disease or altered environment. The Research Training Group will address in an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional approach several hormone systems involved in these processes in higher mammalian organisms, including man.
The central idea of this programme is to connect hormonally regulated processes of differentiation and adaptation to changing requirements of nutrition, environment, and exogenous factors including therapy, and to consider mutual interactions between fine-tuned differentiation-dependent, age-adapted and disease-associated hormonal networks. One aim of the programme is to better understand the establishment of the communication between endocrine circuits and various metabolic challenges in various life periods. Hormonal regulation of body weight, energy homeostasis, and metabolic function has recently attracted major scientific and public attention due to the fact that increasing availability of food and energy encounters a genetic setting of most species, which evolved over times of shortage of energy and deficiency in nutrients. These very recent changes led to the development of epidemic obesity and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, lipid disorders and other major diseases ( Volkskrankheiten ). Here, hormonal networks have to adapt to novel challenges already during development, growth, maintenance and aging. Innovative animal models, novel interdisciplinary approaches of research on multigenetic disorders, and novel therapeutic strategies are addressed in the research projects. Evaluation and interpretation of complex sets of genomic, molecular and epidemiological data require novel approaches, such as meta-analysis and statistics-based evaluation of changes and adaptation of hormonal parameters. The composition and organisation of this Research Training Group reflects in its concept the mutually dependent and interactive network of endocrine regulation and hormone action, which requires adaptable networks to enable efficient and functional biological transfer of information contained in hormonal signals. Interdisciplinary research and a corresponding curriculum will provide the structural basis for education and training in molecular endocrinology to the graduates.
The central idea of this programme is to connect hormonally regulated processes of differentiation and adaptation to changing requirements of nutrition, environment, and exogenous factors including therapy, and to consider mutual interactions between fine-tuned differentiation-dependent, age-adapted and disease-associated hormonal networks. One aim of the programme is to better understand the establishment of the communication between endocrine circuits and various metabolic challenges in various life periods. Hormonal regulation of body weight, energy homeostasis, and metabolic function has recently attracted major scientific and public attention due to the fact that increasing availability of food and energy encounters a genetic setting of most species, which evolved over times of shortage of energy and deficiency in nutrients. These very recent changes led to the development of epidemic obesity and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, lipid disorders and other major diseases ( Volkskrankheiten ). Here, hormonal networks have to adapt to novel challenges already during development, growth, maintenance and aging. Innovative animal models, novel interdisciplinary approaches of research on multigenetic disorders, and novel therapeutic strategies are addressed in the research projects. Evaluation and interpretation of complex sets of genomic, molecular and epidemiological data require novel approaches, such as meta-analysis and statistics-based evaluation of changes and adaptation of hormonal parameters. The composition and organisation of this Research Training Group reflects in its concept the mutually dependent and interactive network of endocrine regulation and hormone action, which requires adaptable networks to enable efficient and functional biological transfer of information contained in hormonal signals. Interdisciplinary research and a corresponding curriculum will provide the structural basis for education and training in molecular endocrinology to the graduates.
DFG Programme
Research Training Groups
Applicant Institution
Freie Universität Berlin; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Participating Institution
Deutsches Institut für Ernährungsforschung Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE)
