An Endocrine Society Thematic Issue: Contributions by FLARE Fellows 2020
September 2020
Read our special collection of journal articles with authors who are fellows of the Society’s FLARE program! FLARE (Future Leaders Advancing Research in Endocrinology) is the Endocrine Society’s program for basic and clinical research trainees and junior faculty from underrepresented minority communities who have demonstrated achievement in endocrine research. Curation of the collection was guided by the rate of citations of publications from 2012 to the present.
Schlaepfer and Joshi discuss in Endocrinology the expression and role of the liver fatty-acid-oxidation enzyme CPT1A. Treviño and Katz discuss developmental origins of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and possible links to endocrine disruptors. Ma and coauthors describe research with mice on the role of the androgen receptor in dysfunction in ovary theca cells, and Montalbano and colleagues describe evidence that implicates pulmonary collectins and toll-like receptor 2 in the timing of labor.
Also in Endocrinology, Kassotis and coauthors describe multi-organ impacts of prenatal exposure to chemicals used in fracking, using a mouse model. Qiu and colleagues provide evidence for the role of insulin sensing by Kiss1 neurons in the timing of puberty. Ren and others describe types of glucocorticoid receptor signaling in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and apoptosis. Oki’s group of authors describes a potassium channel mutant that increases aldosterone synthesis.
Writing in JCEM, Zhao and colleagues describe central diabetes insipidus induced by an anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor. Echouffo-Tcheugui and associates discuss the natural history of obesity sub-phenotypes from the Framingham heart study. Tamhane and coauthors provide a meta-analysis that records the beneficial effects of growth hormone on childhood cancer survivors. And Faucz and coauthors describe somatic USP8 gene mutations that are a common cause of Cushing disease.
The FLARE fellows who contributed to these articles are Stanley Andrisse, Victoria D Balise, Ricardo R Correa, Diana Cruz-Topete, Jaydira Del Rivero, Ifechugwude Ebenuwa, Justin B Echouffo Tcheugui, Latrice D Faulkner, Sina Jasim, Milay Luis Lam, Alina P Montalbano, Isabel R Schlaepfer, and Lindsey S Treviño.
Endocrinology
Energy homeostasis during fasting or prolonged exercise depends on mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (FAO).
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing epidemic worldwide, particularly in countries that consume a Western diet, and can lead to life-threatening conditions such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Androgen and its receptor (AR) play a critical role in reproductive function under both physiological and pathophysiological conditions.
Previously we obtained compelling evidence that the fetus provides a critical signal for the initiation of term labor through developmental induction of surfactant protein (SP)-A expression by the fetal lung and secretion into amniotic fluid (AF).
Oil and natural gas operations have been shown to contaminate surface and ground water with endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Pubertal onset only occurs in a favorable, anabolic hormonal environment.
Glucocorticoids and their synthetic derivatives are known to alter cardiac function in vivo; however, the nature of these effects and whether glucocorticoids act directly on cardiomyocytes are poorly understood.
Primary aldosteronism is the most common cause of secondary hypertension, most frequently due to an aldosterone-producing adenoma or idiopathic hyperaldosteronism.
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
GH deficiency (GHD) is common among childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) with history of tumors, surgery, and/or radiotherapy involving the hypothalamus-pituitary region.
The natural histories of obesity subphenotypes are incompletely delineated.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors, including anti–programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), anti–programmed cell death protein ligand 1 (PD-L1), and anti–cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (anti-CTLA4) monoclonal antibodies, have been widely used in cancer treatment.
Somatic mutations in the ubiquitin-specific protease 8 (USP8) gene have been recently identified as the most common genetic alteration in patients with Cushing disease (CD).
