FIGHTING OBESITY MAY BE AS EASY AS ATP,
SAYS UH RESEARCHER
NIH, NSF Funds Biosensors That Would Track Metabolic Activity,
Diagnose Unhealthy Conditions
HOUSTON, Oct. 22, 2007 – Wearing a portable instrument to
monitor metabolism in the fight against obesity and its related
health consequences may be on the horizon thanks to collaborative
research being performed at the University of Houston and The Methodist
Hospital.
Physics Professor John Miller, director of the High-Temperature
Superconducting Device Applications and Nano-Biophysics Laboratory
in the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston
(TcSUH), recently received a three-year, $623,425 exploratory research
grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a joint program
with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on biosensors for energy
balance and obesity.
In particular, Miller is targeting metabolic syndrome, a pernicious
complication of obesity that affects about 20 percent of obese individuals
and greatly increases the likelihood of diabetes, heart disease
and cancer. His long-term goal is to develop innovative technologies
that detect metabolic activity for research and clinical applications.
“Although drug treatments for metabolic syndrome exist, the
cost of drugs to treat all obese individuals is prohibitive,”
Miller said. “Therefore, there is a critical public health
need to develop technologies that can provide early diagnosis of
metabolic syndrome and enable cost-effective treatment, as well
as to measure metabolic activity and other components of energy
balance in obese patients.”
The chemical currency of energy and metabolism that is used by
the cellular machinery of all living organisms is adenosine triphosphate
(ATP) – a molecule involved in more chemical reactions than
any other on Earth except water. In animals, plants and fungi, ATP
is produced by enzyme complexes in mitochondria that live and reproduce
inside the cell. ATP molecules can be thought of as packets of “fuel”
that power biological molecular motors. If one were to suddenly
run out of ATP, death would be instantaneous. However, ATP that
goes unused eventually gets converted into fat – hence the
growing obesity epidemic at a time when high-calorie food is plentiful.
The focus of the NIH grant is to develop sensors, based on harmonic
generation spectroscopy and related techniques, that detect metabolic
activity in mitochondrial complexes. Often considered the powerhouses
of cells, mitochondria convert molecules extracted from the food
we eat into ATP, the fuel used by the rest of the cell. The mitochondria
house enzymes that carry out these steps essential to metabolism.
The NIH-funded project will focus on electrode-based sensors that
detect mitochondrial enzymes in action and may lead to development
of portable instruments worn by patients for continuous monitoring
of resting and active metabolism, as well as other clinical devices.
Moreover, studies have shown that mitochondria are often defective
in patients suffering from obesity, type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
It is hoped the sensors will be able to distinguish normal from
dysfunctional mitochondrial activity.
Miller’s collaborators include William Widger, professor
of biology and biochemistry at UH; and Drs. Dale Hamilton and Richard
Robbins, endocrinologists in the Department of Medicine at The Methodist
Hospital. The NIH award will last through Aug. 31, 2010.
In addition to the NIH project, Miller is focusing on a related
project that is part of the TcSUH Biomedical Research Program and
is being funded by TcSUH. It focuses more on technologies based
on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and related
magnetic sensors that measure minute changes in magnetic flux used
to detect extremely small changes in magnetic fields, electric currents
and voltages. This could lead to clinical instruments designed for
early diagnosis of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance.
Miller envisions that nanoscale probes eventually could be developed
to image activity of individual biological molecular motors that
produce ATP, such as the molecular turbine ATP synthase, which is
the smallest known rotary motor in existence that produces ATP with
amazing efficiency. The human body contains about sextillion of
these motors that recycle anywhere from a person’s own body
weight to more than a ton of ATP in a single day, depending on how
vigorously one exercises.
Joining UH in 1989 as a faculty member in the Department of Physics
and TcSUH, Miller previously was a faculty member in the Department
of Physics and Astronomy at the University of North Carolina - Chapel
Hill from 1986-1989, receiving the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Research
Fellowship in 1987. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois
in 1985, where he studied the dynamics of charge density waves under
the direction of John Tucker and two-time Nobel laureate John Bardeen.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
About the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University
of Houston
TcSUH is internationally recognized for its multidisciplinary research
and development of high-temperature superconductors (HTS), as well
as energy- and nano-materials. With more than 200 faculty, postdoctoral
fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students from the departments
of chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, electrical and computer
engineering, and mechanical engineering, TcSUH disseminates fundamental
and applied knowledge through extensive education and outreach programs.
For more information, visit www.tcsuh.uh.edu.
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