The European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes funds a project led by Professor Francesc Villarroya
The researcher Francesc Villarroya, Professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Biology and Director of the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), affiliated centres with the campus of international excellence BKC, is the only Spanish expert that will receive funds from the programme fostered by the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) and the pharmaceutical firm Nova Nordisk.
The researcher Francesc Villarroya, Professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Biology and Director of the Institute of Biomedicine of the UB (IBUB), affiliated centres with the campus of international excellence BKC, is the only Spanish expert that will receive funds from the programme fostered by the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) and the pharmaceutical firm Nova Nordisk.
Francesc Villarroya, who is member of the Biomedical Research Networking Centres on Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn), will receive funds to lead the project Identification of novel endocrine factors secreted by brown fat (batokines) with anti-diabetic action. Other recipients of EFSD-Novo Nordisk grants are the researchers Jorge Ferrer, expert from Imperial College London on the field of blood glucose control —and former researcher at IDIBELL-Hospital Clínic de Barcelona—; Riccardo Bonadonna, from Verona University (Italy); Claudia P. Coomans, from Leiden University Medical Centre (the Netherlands), and Olga Gornik, from the University of Zagreb (Croatia).
Within the project, which will be carried out between 2013 and 2015, the UB group led by Dr Villarroya will use some experimental protocols for laboratory animals to study the role of brown fat —primary organ responsible for generating heat— in endocrine functions; in other words, brown fat secretes a series of factors involved in signalling pathways of lipid metabolism and glucose.
To be exact, the objective of the project is to study and identify the role of batokines —factors secreted by brown fat — in lipid metabolism, blood glucose control and the processes related to molecular inflammatory mechanisms. In the future, the research might contribute to provide new treatments for diseases such as obesity and diabetes, two major threats to global public health that are rapidly getting worse in most developed countries.
Further information about EFSD-Novo Nordisk Programme