Dean Myers, PhD

  • Position: Diabetes Research Member

Biography

A major focus in Dr. Myers’ laboratory is identifying the mechanisms via which maternal obesity and diet during pregnancy program the developing fetus leading to a constellation of adverse effects on physiological organs regulating metabolism (hepatic, adipose), immune response and critically brain function (behavior and cognition) in the offspring. Alarmingly, ~40% of women of reproductive age in the USA are obese at the time of conception. Pre-pregnancy maternal obesity (MO) is strongly linked to childhood/adolescent obesity and associated metabolic disorders, suggesting a vicious cycle. One in 3 children born this year will be obese by age 35 and half will develop pre-diabetes. MO increases the risk of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders implicating a negative impact of MO on the highly plastic developing brain. Significantly, the prevalence of these disorders has increased at a rate paralleling the obesity epidemic. Non-human primates (NHPs) provide highly translatable models to study human disease and to develop clinically relevant interventions.

We are developing the Olive baboon as a NHP model for determining the mechanisms via which a WSD and MO epigenetically program the developing fetal brain, liver and innate immune system (monocytes/macrophages and hematopoetic stem cells) priming the offspring for early development of metabolic disorders, obesity and neuropsychiatric disorders. Our ultimate goals are to examine the effect of a WSD in the absence of, or presence of, MO on the developing fetal brain (hippocampus, cortex) and liver and study the offspring through adolescence for growth, metabolic disorders and behavior disorders. Our research is a multi-PI effort with expertise in brain development and behavior, epigenetics (DNA methylation), metabolism and microbiome to unravel the mechanisms and signals via which maternal obesity and diet are vertically transferred across the placental interface impacting the developing fetus. This will allow us to design interventions in highly translatable NHP species.