GMS Doctoral Student Nadia Krasner Selected for 2011 ASN Predoctoral Fellowship
Nadia Krasner, a PhD student in the Graduate Program in Medical Nutrition Sciences, has been selected to receive a $5,000 fellowship through the American Society of Nutrition. The award recognizes Ms. Krasner’s excellence in her proposed project Does GLP-1 Mediated Activation of AMPK have an Anti-Inflammatory Effect in Vascular Endothelium. The grant, sponsored by Pfizer, will be presented at the ASN Awards Ceremony on Sunday April 10, during the ASN Scientific Sessions and Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2011 in Washington, DC.
The overall goals of the project are to determine whether the GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1) activates AMPK in vascular endothelial cells, and if in doing so, it inhibits the potentially atherogenic effects of hyperglycemia, the saturated fatty acid palmitate and the inflammatory cytokine TNF. Ms. Krasner’s mentors are Dr. Neil Ruderman and Dr. Jose Cacicedo in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, BUSM.
The Graduate Program in Medical Nutrition Sciences, part of the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences, the branch of the School of Medicine focused on graduate education, is directed by Susan K. Fried, PhD. This doctoral program prepares students to conduct research directed at understanding how nutrients affect health at the molecular, clinical and population levels.