PARTNER 6

Professor Carlos Diéguez, PhD

Faculty of Medicine, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15700 Santiago de Compostela, SPAIN

See Group Presentation

ROLE AND CONTRIBUTION

Professor Dieguez will head workpackage 6. He will be responsible of the estrategy for the identification of the mechanism of action of the possitive candidates identified by reprofiling, in association with partners 1, 3, 4 and 5. These studies will include a complete evaluation of neuroendocrine signals involved in the mechanisms of action, as well as the intracellular events, including signalling and gene expression both, in peripheral tissues (adipocytes, hepatocytes) and hypothalamic targets. Most experimental work will be performed by two post-doctoral research workers employed on this grant, but Professor Dieguez will retain a close involvement with all aspects of the experimental work through daily interactions. He will also participate through the spanish Network of Biomedical Research in Obesity by providing patient samples. Additionaly, Dr. Dieguez will asses in the integration of the information of both reprofilg and biomarkers in orde to propose new clinical trials in correctly phenotyped patients.

SCIENTIFIC PROFILE

Professor Dieguez has 20 years of research experience in neuroendocrinology leading to over 200 publications of which over 40 are related to leptin and ghrelin He has organised several international conferences, such as the European Neuroendocrine Association and the International Congress on Growth hormone and IGF-1. He is serving at present as Secretary of the “Physiology and Life Sciences Board” in the Spanish Research Council which is in charge of funding project grants. Research in his laboratory is funded by grants from the Spanish research Council, the Ministry of Health and by industry. He has supervised 14 PhD students to completion.

European Links: The group has considerable ties with many European groups having undertaken several projects and published over 30 papers with groups in Britain, Italy, Holland, Portugal and Serbia.

CAPACITY TO PROVIDE CONTRIBUTION

The Neuroendocrine Group of Santiago de Compostela includes over 20 scientists, including PhD students, visiting scientists, technicians, post-doctoral scientists and four other academic staff in addition to Professor Dieguez. Facilities and expertise in the laboratory include a lab of in situ hybridization for neuropeptides, neurones in culture, in vivo studies in freely-moving animals, and adipocyte organ culture. In recent years the group have been heavily involved in obesity research. In this regard it has a strong publication record in topics related to gender differences and on pregnancy and lactation. Other members of the laboratory will provide collaborative support, in particular: Maria García (F).She is a fellow “Parga Pondal”. She will be in charge of assessing food intake, energy expenditure, locomotor activity etc. Miguel Lopez (M). He will be in charge of the mechanistic studies including . In situ hybridization.

TEAM MEMBERS

Miguel López

Rubén Nogueiras

Adenis Arteaga 

Pablo Blanco

Luz Casas

Katia da Boit

Marta Garrido

Ruth González

Ricardo Lage

Hugo Mendieta-Zerón

Francisca Rodríguez

Susana Sangiao

Sulay Tovar

Luis Varela

María J. Vázquez

RECENT RELEVANT PAPERS

1: Popovic V, Doknic M, Maric N, Pekic S, Damjanovic A, Miljic D, Popovic S,Miljic N, Djurovic M, Jasovic-Gasic M, Dieguez C, Casanueva FF. Changes in neuroendocrine and metabolic hormones induced by atypical antipsychotics in normal-weight patients with schizophrenia. Neuroendocrinology. 2007;85(4):249-56.

2: Seoane LM, Al-Massadi O, Caminos JE, Tovar SA, Dieguez C, Casanueva FF. Sensory stimuli directly acting at the central nervous system regulate gastric ghrelin secretion. an ex vivo organ culture study. Endocrinology. 2007 Aug;148(8):3998-4006.

3: Fruhbeck G, Lopez M, Dieguez C. Role of caveolins in body weight and insulin resistance regulation. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Jul;18(5):177-82. Epub 2007 Apr 11.

4: Nogueiras R, Pfluger P, Tovar S, Arnold M, Mitchell S, Morris A, Perez-Tilve D, Vazquez MJ, Wiedmer P, Castaneda TR, DiMarchi R, Tschop M, Schurmann A, Joost HG, Williams LM, Langhans W, Dieguez C. Effects of obestatin on energy balance and growth hormone secretion in rodents.Endocrinology. 2007 Jan;148(1):21-6. Epub 2006 Sep 28.

5: Lopez M, Lelliott CJ, Tovar S, Kimber W, Gallego R, Virtue S, Blount M, Vazquez MJ, Finer N, Powles TJ, O'Rahilly S, Saha AK, Dieguez C, Vidal-Puig AJ. Tamoxifen-induced anorexia is associated with fatty acid synthase inhibition in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus and accumulation of malonyl-CoA. Diabetes. 2006 May;55(5):1327-36.