AIMRC Seminar: From Genes to Neurons - How Flies Get Fat

The Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center will host Tânia Reis, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, at 12:55 p.m. on Wednesday, April 8, in CHEM 0144.

Reis investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate energy homeostasis across cellular-to-organ-system levels. In her talk, Reis will share how she uses advanced genetic, biochemical, and molecular tools in the fruit fly model to understand how organisms constantly challenged by developmental changes, as well as shifting environments, integrate all these variables to maintain energy balance and health.

Abstract: The ability to maintain homeostasis is a defining feature of life. Energy homeostasis balances energy intake, storage, expenditure, and release. The majority of these homeostatic processes are understood at the cellular level. However, much less is known about multicellular organisms that have complex physiology (including distinct organs with specialized functions) and that perform energetically relevant behaviors such as food choice and physical exertion. How does an organism constantly challenged by developmental changes, as well as a shifting environment, integrate all these variables to maintain energetic balance?  The Reis lab investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate energy homeostasis across cellular to organ-system levels using advanced genetic, biochemical, and molecular tools in Drosophila melanogaster. To deepen our understanding of how organisms maintain energy balance, Reis examines how these pathways interface with external signals to maintain homeostasis, and aims to understand the molecular basis of differences in homeostatic mechanisms between the sexes, as well as throughout development, in both health and disease.

Biography: Tânia Reis earned her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Porto in Portugal and earned her Ph.D. as part of the groundbreaking Gulbenkian Ph.D. Program in Biology and Medicine. Tânia did her doctoral research under the mentorship of Bruce Edgar at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. During postdoctoral work with Iswar Hariharan at UC Berkeley, Tânia developed a paradigm to study mechanisms of energy homeostasis. In 2011, Tânia began her research program at the Anschutz Medical Campus of the University of Colorado to discover ways that organs communicate with each other to maintain organismal energy balance. In 2023, she was awarded the NIH Director's Pioneer Award for her high-risk, high-reward project investigating how the brain coordinates its neuronal activity with its high energetic demands in the context of memory and learning. Tânia is a strong believer that innovations in research must go hand in hand with innovative ways to make science more equitable and inclusive.

This event is supported by NIGMS of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P20GM139768. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Pizza and beverages will be served. Please contact Kimberley Fuller, fullerk@uark.edu, for more information.

For those unable to attend in person, this seminar will also be available via Zoom.