Scientific Discoveries
UT Southwestern metabolism faculty, their students, and their other lab members have made many key scientific discoveries. Here is a sampling of their discoveries:
| Discovery | Scientist |
|---|---|
| 2020 | |
| Low dose Rosiglitazone + GPR120 agonist improves insulin sensitivity | Oh |
| Prdm12 acts developmentally to program body weight homeostasis | C. Liu |
| 2019 | |
| Nitrosative stress drives heart failure with preserved ejection fraction | J. Hill |
| Ghrelin and LEAP2 are oppositely regulated by metabolic status | Zigman |
| SCGN deficiency results in colitis susceptibility | Burstein |
| Characterization of Kaufman oculocerebrofacial syndrome as a metabolic encephalomyopathy | Chahrour |
| 2018 | |
| Flexibility of hypothalamic neurons/circuits in response to exercise | K. Williams |
| Uromodulin regulates renal magnesium homeostasis | M. Wolf |
| 2016 | |
| Metabolic heterogeneity in human cancers | DeBerardinis |
| WNK1 inhibits autophagy | Cobb |
| Discovery that Reelin and ApoE receptors regulate peripheral immune cell extravasation | Herz |
| Adipose perivascular cells are developmental precursors of adipocytes formed in obesity | R. Gupta |
| 2015 | |
| Schnyder corneal dystrophy (SCD)-associated mutations in UBIAD1 may facilitate accumulation of cholesterol | Debose-Boyd |
| 2014 | |
| FGF21 is a starvation hormone that acts centrally to induce weight loss | Mangelsdorf and Kliewer |
| Insig proteins affect intestinal cholesterol synthesis | Engelking |
| 2012 | |
| Doxorubicin blocks cancer proliferation via stimulating ceramide synthesis | Ye |
| 2010 | |
| Discovery that ApoE4 induces an endolysosomal trafficking defect | Herz |
| 2008 | |
| Nuclear hormone receptor repertoire of pancreatic islets | Repa |
| Identification of the first genetic factor for fatty liver disease | Cohen and Hobbs |
| 2006 | |
| PCSK9 inactivation mutations lower LDL and prevent heart attacks | Horton, Cohen, Hobbs |
| 2005 | |
| First large population-based study of prevalence of NAFLD (Dallas Heart Study) |
Browning, Horton, Grundy, Vega, Cohen, Hobbs |
| Disruption of molecular circadian clock causes obesity | Takahashi |
| Msx2 promotes cardiovascular calcification by activating paracrine Wnt signals | Towler |
| 2002 | |
| Activation of central melanocortin pathways by the weight loss drug fenfluramine | Elmquist |
| Leptin replacement therapy treats lipodystrophy | Garg |
| 2001 | |
| ChREBP | Uyeda |
| 2000 | |
| SIM1 deficiency causes profound obesity | Zinn |
| 1999 | |
| Discovery of the Reelin receptors | Herz |
| 1998 | |
| Alternate pathway of bile acid synthesis | Russell |
| 1995 | |
| Adiponectin | Scherer |
| 1988 | |
| Discovery of the LDL receptor-related protein (LRP) | Herz |
| 1974 | |
| LDL receptor and genetic basis of familial hypercholesterolemia | Brown and Goldstein (1985 Nobel Prize) |
| 1969, 1978 | |
| Roles of glucagon in glucose homeostasis and glucagon excess in diabetes | Unger |
