Xuan Zhuang, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Arkansas[1], was awarded $2 million from the National Institutes of Health to study how genes and the environment impact health, the UA announced Tuesday (Oct. 7).
A specific interest is how differences in genetic background can influence susceptibility to metabolic disease, such as Type 2 diabetes, through differences in diet.
“Every person’s traits — like his or her metabolism or susceptibility to disease — are shaped by a mix of genes and the environment,” Zhuang said. “Some genetic differences don’t show an effect under normal conditions, but when the environment changes, their impact becomes clear. By understanding these hidden genetic effects, we can better understand disease risk and resilience.”
The research may reveal previously hidden genetic variation, gene-trait connections, and gene-environment interactions, resulting in a deeper understanding of complex diseases and leading to more targeted approaches in medicine.
Zhuang will use fruit flies as a model species to study the complex interactions. She and her team will use large, outbred fly populations, which mimic human populations, and inbred fly populations that share the same genome to test the effects of different environments. They will be fed various diets, such as high sugar or high fat, to study how genes interact with dietary changes to influence traits related to metabolism, development and physiology.
“The goal is to identify and map out candidate genes that play an outsized role in disease-related traits response to differences in diet,” the release shows. “Ideally, the results of this study will translate to the study of human diseases once the mechanism by which certain diets trigger certain genetic responses is better understood.”
With this grant from the National Institutes of Health, Zhuang will graduate from the research project leader program in the Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center. In this role, she received money to generate preliminary data, used the center’s Imaging and Spectroscopy, Bioenergetics, and Data Science Cores for technical support, and participated in mentoring and scientific exchange through seminars, meetings and the annual symposium. She also received proposal development assistance, which helped her receive the grant.
The Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center was founded in 2021 by Kyle Quinn with support from the UA and a National Institutes of Health Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence grant.
“Serving as an AIMRC Research Project Leader provided me with seed funding, access to core facilities, and structured mentoring that were critical in building a solid foundation of preliminary data and in sharpening my ability to craft competitive proposals,” Zhuang said. “These experiences directly informed my current grant submission and have been integral to my development as a professor.”
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References
- ^ University of Arkansas (www.uark.edu)