DMPI member Paul Grimsrud received a two-year Pilot and Feasibility Grant from the North Carolina Diabetes Research Center (NCDRC). The mission of the NCDRC is to increase the impact of diabetes research at Duke University, NC A&T State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest School of Medicine. The P&F program is meant to encourage and facilitate novel basic, clinical and translational diabetes research that demonstrates a clear path to subsequent funding.
Dr. Grimsrud’s research proposal, Investigating new roles for the mitochondrial kinase PDK4 in liver metabolism, aims to better understand the function of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4), an enzyme that is highly responsive to nutrient and energetic cues and one that has received much attention as a potential therapeutic target for type 2 diabetes. To investigate the hypothesis that PDK4 plays a much broader role in energy metabolism than previously suggested, Dr. Grimsrud will team with the group of Dr. Deb Muoio and the DMPI/NCDRC Metabolomics laboratory to apply phosphoproteomics and metabolomics approaches to mouse models of altered hepatic PDK4 abundance. The proposed studies are expected to provide new insights into molecular mechanisms that mediate whole body glucose homeostasis, as well as those contributing to the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes.
Congratulations Paul!