Author: Jeff Hansel
The Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics has announced grants that will fund zebrafish research and a mobile obesity research laboratory.
The Minnesota Partnership is a collaboration between Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota. It is funded by state grants.
"By building the mobile obesity laboratory for body composition and energy metabolism assessment we will deploy a unique mobile laboratory that serves several goals," said Dr. James Levine, a Mayo Clinic researcher and proponent of keeping yourself physically active.
The goals are:
• Help people participate in research.
• Help researchers "to complete high-quality research measurements in regions they previously did not have access to" and to develop new research projects.
"The overall plan of this application is to build a mobile obesity laboratory that enables state-of-the-art measurements of body composition, energy expenditure and assessments of food intake," Levine said. Researchers will use underwater weighing, MRI or bone density tests. They will be able to measure basal metabolic rate, the effect of food and energy expenditure through exercise and activity.
Study participants may use treadmills, wearable electronic data devices or a bed that's part of the mobile lab.
Mayo and the U of M will have access to technology that previously was only available at one institution. Researchers will be able to visit rural communities, workplaces and schools.
"It makes great sense for us to bring a mobile laboratory such as this to the children to enhance our ability to understand and reverse childhood obesity," Levine said. One in three adults in the U.S. is obese.
Levine's team, collaborating with epidemiologist Dr. Robert Jeffrey at the U of M, is receiving a $900,000, two-year grant.
Another Minnesota Partnership group that includes Steven Ekker at Mayo and Daniel Voytas at the U of M will develop a "special type of enzymes that can be customized to accurately cut DNA sequences." Their research team is receiving a $1 million award.
The Post-Bulletin,