Metabolism

A pair of studies from the lab of Professor Satchidananda Panda sheds light on the importance of timing to our health. One, led by Panda, co-senior author and visiting scientist Howard Cooper, and staff scientist Ludovic Mure, and published in Science on February 8, 2018, found that the activity of nearly 80 percent of genes follows a day/night rhythm in many tissue types and brain regions. The other, which appeared in Cell Metabolism on February 6, 2018, uncovered how the liver can have such a speedy response to food, making massive shifts in how it breaks down and stores fats and sugars within minutes of a meal. Both discoveries could inform new therapies for obesity and diabetes.

Salk researchers reported a potential new approach for treating diabetes by protecting beta cells—the cells in the pancreas that produce, store and release insulin. Co-senior authors Ronald Evans and Michael Downes, first author Zong Wei, and colleagues showed that using vitamin D in cells and mouse models proved beneficial in treating damaged beta cells. It also provided new insights about gene regulation that could be applied to developing treatments for other diseases, including cancer. Their paper was published May 10, 2018, in Cell.