Novel insights from translational pre-clinical models of nutritional research This presentation will be a summary of important work focusing on the gut-derived hormone known as glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide or GIP. This hormone is unique in that it is highly sensitive to fats bypassing the gut during a meal where shortly therefore it potentiates insulin secretion and can affect food intake. My lab focuses on the receptors of GIP in the adipose tissue and how this can regulate whole body energy metabolism. We have designed many preclinical models that remove and activate the GIP receptor specifically in white and brown adipose tissue. We can learn a lot from these models to understand how incretin-based therapies work to treat chronic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. We have developed models where we can provide translational relevance of these findings that can be applied to how human adipose tissue functions.
Dr. Jacqueline Beaudry is an Assistant Professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine in the department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, Canada since July 2020. She received her PhD from the department of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University in Toronto, Canada in September 2013 under the supervision of Dr. Michael Riddell. Following her PhD, she joined Dr. Daniel Drucker’s laboratory at the Lunenfeld-Tannenbaum Research Centre at Sinai Health Systems in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Beaudry studied the physiological role of gut- and pancreatic-derived hormone receptors on white and brown adipose tissue function. Currently, Dr. Beaudry’s lab focuses on trying to better understand how the body regulates energy homeostasis under hormonal stimuli, nutrients and energy demanding conditions in the fat tissue. Particularly, Dr. Beaudry’s lab studies how abnormalities in the fat tissue can lead to obesity and chronic disease development such as insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and type 2 diabetes.