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Institute of Metabolic Science

Metabolic Research Laboratories
 

Research Interests 

Human nutritional physiology and experimental medicine 

I have a longstanding interest in understanding the mechanisms involved in the regulation of metabolic function and energy homeostasis in people in health and disease. The overall goal of my research is two-fold to: 1) understand the mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of the obesity related metabolic complications (insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, hepatic steatosis) and 2) develop/evaluate interventions (nutritional, lifestyle, pharmacological, etc.) aiming to improve metabolic function and determine their underlying mechanisms. My primary research involves the use of both basic and clinical research tools to evaluate cellular, regional, and whole-body substrate metabolism to test physiologically and clinically relevant hypotheses in people in vivo. 

Our current research focuses on: 

  1. the role of adipose tissue function in health and disease 

  1. the effect of the temporal distribution of caloric intake and other circadian factors in metabolic function in people that are high risk for developing metabolic disease 

  1. the mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of obesity and its related metabolic perturbations in humans 

I am always happy to hear from enthusiastic PhD and postdoctoral candidates with strong background in nutrition, exercise physiology, metabolic science.  


Group Members

Daya Kaur Sumra, MPhil Student - dks36 at cam.ac.uk


Funding 

Wellcome 

Evelyn Trust 

Rank Foundation  

NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre

Publications

Key publications: 

Abdelhafez YG, Wang G, Li S, Chaudari AJ, Ramirez A, Sen F, Sidossis LS, Klein S, Badawi RD, Chondronikola M. The role of brown Adipose tissue in branched-chain amino acid clearance in people. iScience. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110559. doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110559  

Inoue S, Emmett MJ, Lim HW, Midha M, Richter HJ, Celwyn IJ, Mehmood R, Chondronikola M, Klein S, Hauck AK, and Lazar MA. Short-term cold exposure induces persistent epigenomic memory in brown fat. Cell Metab. 2024. Epub 20240612. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.05.011. PubMed PMID: 38889724. 

Chondronikola M*, Yoshino J, Ramaswamy R, Giardina JD, Laforest R, Wahl RL, Patterson BW, Mittendorfer B, Klein S. Very low-density lipoprotein triglyceride and free fatty acid plasma kinetics in women with overweight/obesity and high or low brown adipose tissue volume. Cell Reports Medicine. 2024. 5(1): p. 101370. doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101370  * co-corresponding author 

Xiao H, Bozi LHM, Sun Y, Riley CL, […], Chondronikola M, McAllister FE, Van Bruggen N, Huttlin EL, Spiegelman BM, Churchill GA, Gygi SP, Chouchani ET. Architecture of the outbred brown fat proteome defines regulators of metabolic physiology. Cell. 2022 Nov 2:S0092-8674(22)01318-6. doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.cell.2022.10.003  

Petersen MC, Gallop MR, Flores Ramos S, Zarrinpar A, Broussard JL, Chondronikola M, Chaix A, Klein S. Complex Physiology and Clinical Implications of Time-restricted Eating. Physiol Rev. 2022 Oct 1;102(4):1991-2034. doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00006.2022  

Zhu S, Surampudi P, Roshanravan B, Chondronikola M.  Intermittent Fasting as a Nutrition Approach against Obesity and Metabolic Disease. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2020;23(6):387-394. doi.org/10.1097/mco.0000000000000694  

Chondronikola M, Sarkar S. Total-body PET Imaging: A New Frontier for the Assessment of Metabolic Disease and Obesity. PET Clin. 2021;16(1):75-87. 

Smith G, Shankaran M, Yoshino M, Schweitzer G, Chondronikola M, Beals JW, Okunade A, Patterson BW, Nyangau E, Field T, Sirlin C, Talukdar S, Hellerstein MK, Klein L. Insulin resistance drives hepatic de novo lipogenesis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. J Clin Invest 130: 2020. doi.org/10.1172/jci134165  

Yamaguchi S, Franczyk1 MP, Chondronikola M, Qi N, Gunawardana SC, Stromsdorfer KL, Porter LC, Wozniak DF, Sasaki Y, Rensing N, Wong M, Piston DW, Klein S, Yoshino J. Adipose tissue NAD+ biosynthesis is required for regulating adaptive thermogenesis and whole-body energy homeostasis in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019;116(47):23822-23828. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909917116  

Porter C, Herndon DN, Chondronikola M, Chao T, Annamalai P, Bhattarai N, Saraf MK, Capek KD, Reidy PT, Daquinag AC, Kolonin MG, Rasmussen BB, Borsheim E, Toliver-Kinsky T, Sidossis LS. Human and mouse brown adipose tissue mitochondria have comparable UCP1 function. Cell Metab. 2016;24(2):246-55. doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2016.07.004  

Chondronikola M, Volpi E, Børsheim E, Porter C, Saraf MK, Annamalai P, Yfanti C, Chao T, Wong D, Shinoda K, Labbe SM, Hurren NM, Cesani F, Kajimura S, Sidossis LS. Brown adipose tissue activation is linked to distinct systemic effects on lipid metabolism in humans. Cell Metab. 2016;23(6):1200-6. doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2016.04.029  

Chondronikola M, Volpi E, Børsheim E, Chao T, Porter C, Annamalai P, Yfanti C, Labbe SM, Hurren NM, Cesani F, Sidossis LS. Brown adipose tissue is linked to a distinct thermoregulatory response to mild cold in people. Front. Physiol. 2016;7:129. doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2016.00129  

Sidossis LS, Porter C, Saraf MK, Børsheim E, Radhakrishnan RS, Chao T, Ali A, Chondronikola M, Mlcak R, Finnerty Celeste C, et al. Browning of subcutaneous white adipose tissue in humans after severe adrenergic stress. Cell Metab. 22(2):219-27. doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2015.06.022  

Chondronikola M, Annamalai P, Chao T, Porter C, Saraf M, Cessani F, and Sidossis LS. A percutaneous needle biopsy technique for sampling the supraclavicular brown adipose tissue depot of humans. Int J Obesity (London). 2015;39(10):1561-4. PMID: 25920777 doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2015.76  

Chondronikola M, Volpi E, Børsheim E, Porter C, Annamalai P, Enerback S, Lidell M, Saraf M, Labbe S, Hurren N, Yfanti C, Chao T, Andersen C, Cesani F, Hawkins H, Sidossis L. Brown adipose tissue improves whole body glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity in humans. Diabetes. 2014;63(12):4089-99. doi.org/10.2337/db14-0746  

Principal Investigator
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