Division Announcements and Accomplishments

September 2024

Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska for being appointed as assistant professor, tenure track!
Congratulations to Sarah Wernimont for receiving R01HD113553, 'Mitochondrial nutrient transport and trophoblast differentiation!'

August 2024

Congratulations to Kyle Fulghum for leading the review article, 'Ketone Body Metabolism and Cardiometabolic Implications for Cognitive Health,' to be published in the journal npj Metabolic Health and Disease. This article that underscores a collaboration with the Thyfault group at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska for receiving a grant as PI entitled, ‘Central role of ketone body metabolism during embryonic brain development,’ through the MIDB Seed Grant – an Interdisciplinary Faculty Research Award mechanism!

July 2024

Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska on being featured in Perspectives (Volume 4, Issue 1) in a four-page article entitled 'Leaders in Health and Science.' Perspectives is a publication of the Minnesota Polish Medical Society

June 2024

Congratulations to, Allison Makovec (Hwang lab), Eric Queathem (Crawford and Puchalska labs), Alisa Nelson (Crawford and Puchalska labs), and Anwei Gwan (Wernimont lab), for taking home Hebbel Research Day poster awards!!!

May 2024

Welcome Ruusu Ankeriasiniemi to the Crawford Lab
Welcome Cassie Norbeck to the Wernimont Lab
Congratulations to Eric Queathem on his second-place finish in the IBP Visscher symposium.

January 2024

Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska for publishing https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apha.14077
Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska for winning the Scientific Poster Award at the Metabolic Health Summit 2024. Wonderful presentations also by Kyle Fulghum, Alisa Nelson, and Eric Queathem
Welcome Abdiraham Hayir
Welcome Dr. Justin Hwang Lab to the 3rd floor DWAN. Lab members are: Atef Ali; Ella Boytim; David Moline; Pornlada Likasitwatanakul; Christine Luo; Allison Makovec; Aiden Deacon; Emily John; Benjamin Miller; Masooma Sayeda; Hannah Bergom; Carly Miller; John Roy Lozada; Sam Kellen; Ava Gustafson; Rachel Passow; Devin Schmeck

December 2023

Congratulations to the Crawford Lab for publishing "Metabolic Messengers: ketone bodies" in the Journal of Nature Metabolism

November 2023

Congratulations to the Hughey Lab for publishing "Exercise training adaptations in liver glycogen and glycerolipids require hepatic AMP-activated protein kinase in mice" in the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Curtis Hughey presented his lab's work at an American Diabetes Association Webinar entitled "The Power of Movement: Metabolic and Vascular Adaptations to Exercise Training".
Congratulations to Curtis Hughey for being invited to give a talk at the Keystone Symposia on Exercise Biology: Signaling, Mechanisms and Benefits.

October 2023

Patrycja Puchalska presented at the Polish Proteomics Society and Polish Society of Metabolomics (PTP) on Thursday October 22nd. The title of her talk was "Metabolomics and Lipidomics approaches to reveal disease pathobiology"

Publication updates

Congratulations to Peter Crawford for publishing "Ketone ester administration improves glycemia in obese mice"
Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska and Peter Crawford for publishing "Ketolysis drives CD8+ T cell effector function through effects on histone acetylation"
Congratulations to Peter Crawford for publishing "Transcriptional metabolic reprogramming implements meiotic fate decision in mouse testicular germ cells"

September 2023

Congratulations to the Wernimont Lab for being awarded Outstanding Obstetrics Paper from the Perinatal Research Society for their manuscript:
Mahr RM, Jena S, Nashif SK, Nelson AB, Rauckhorst AJ, Rome FI, Sheldon RD, Hughey CC, Puchalska P, Gearhart MD, Taylor EB, Crawford PA, Wernimont SA. Mitochondrial citrate metabolism and efflux regulate BeWo differentiation. Sci Rep. 2023 May 6;13(1):7387. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-34435-x. PMID: 37149697 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37149697/

August 2023

Congratulations to Kyle Fulghum for publishing, 'Coordinated Metabolic Responses Facilitate Cardiac Growth in Pregnancy and Exercise.'
Congratulations to the Wernimont group for their publication, 'Neonatal outcomes and rationale for timing of birth in perinatal diabetes: a retrospective cohort study.'
Congratulations to Senali Dansou, rotating MSTP student, for a wonderfully productive rotation, and to his primary bench mentor, Eric Queathem!

July 2023

Congratulations to Curtis Hughey for receiving R01DK136772 "Hepatic Integration of Mitochondrial Oxidative Metabolism Pathways in Health and Disease"!
Peter Crawford is named Vice Dean for Research

May 2023

Welcome Kyle Fulghum, new postdoctoral fellow to the Crawford-Puchalska group, from the lab of Bradford Hill at the University of Louisville!
Congratulations to Eric Queathem for passing his BMBB qualifying exam. You are now officially a PhD candidate!
Congratulations to the Wernimont lab for their publication, ‘Mitochondrial citrate metabolism and efflux regulate BeWo differentiation’
Congratulations to the Wernimont lab for their publication, ‘Metformin impairs trophoblast metabolism and differentiation in dose dependent manner’
Congratulations to the Crawford-Puchalska lab for their publications
Congratulations to Crawford-Puchalska for their co-direction of the Metabolism Core for NIH U54AT012307, ‘REVEAL - Research Evaluating Vagal Excitation and Anatomical Linkages’

March 2023

Congratulations to Eric Queathem for being appointed to T32 Inclusive Excellence Training Program in the Systems Biology of Cardiovascular Inflammation!

February 2023

Congratulations to Dr. Sereen Nashif and Renee Mahr on their recent presentations at the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine Annual Meeting in San Francisco. They presented three posters: one evaluating the impact of metformin on trophoblast differentiation and two examining neonatal outcomes and clinician rationale for early birth in pregnancies complicated by diabetes.
Congratulations to Alisa Nelson for being appointed to T32 DK007203 Training Grant in Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism!

November 2022

Congratulations to the Hughey lab for their paper, 'Loss of hepatic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 dysregulates metabolic responses to acute exercise but enhances adaptations to exercise training in mice,' accepted by the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism
Congratulations to Eric Queathem for being awarded a scholarship to attend the 14th annual course Isotope Tracers in Metabolic Research: Principles and Practice of Kinetic Analysis at Vanderbilt University!

October 2022

Congratulations to Eric Queathem for receiving a scholarship to attend the 14th annual NIDDK Course: Isotope Tracers in Metabolic Research: Principles and Practice of Kinetic Analysis.
Welcome, Rumina Todorova to our group as a new Researcher!

August 2022

Congratulations to Alisa B. Nelson for defending her Ph.D. thesis entitled “Development and deployment of untargeted metabolomics pipelines to reveal molecular signatures of wellness”.
Congratulations to Curtis Hughey, Patrycja Puchalska and Peter Crawford for their paper "Integrating the contributions of mitochondrial oxidative metabolism to lipotoxicity and inflammation in NAFLD pathogenesis"

June 2022

Congratulations to Curtis Hughey for receiving an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant titled "Defining the Role of Methyl Donor Availability in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Pathophysiology and the Underlying Metabolic Remodeling".

May 2022

Congratulations to Peter Crawford for co-authorship paper, “Krebs takes a turn at cell differentiation”.

April 2022

Congratulations to David (Blake) Stagg for receiving the J. Jacob Kaplan Award, which recognizes outstanding research by undergraduate or graduate medical students in one of the following areas: cardiology, immunology in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and gastroenterology.

March 2022

Congratulations to Alisa Nelson and members of the Crawford-Puchalska lab for their paper, “Artifactual fatty acid dimers mimic FAHFA signals in untargeted metabolomics pipelines”.

February 2022

Congratulations to Siyuan Liu (Hughey Lab) for receiving an award from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) for his project entitled "Defining liver metabolic responses to dietary methionine restriction
Congratulations to Alisa Nelson and members of the Crawford-Puchalska lab for their paper, “Acute aerobic exercise reveals FAHFAs distinguish the metabolomes of overweight and normal weight runners”.
Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska, Alisa Nelson, and Peter Crawford for co-authorship paper, "Ketone body oxidation increases cardiac endothelial cell proliferation".
Congratulations to Ferrol Rome and Curtis Hughey for their paper “Disrupted liver oxidative metabolism in glycine N-methyltransferase-deficient mice is mitigated by dietary methionine restriction”

November 2021

Congratulations to Alisa Nelson for receiving the Outstanding Graduate Researcher Award for her abstract and presentation entitled “Acute exercise unveils serum metabolomics markers distinguishing overweight and normal weight runners” at the 2021 Hebbel Research Day
Congratulations to Ferrol Rome for receiving the Outstanding Predoctoral Researcher Award for her abstract and presentation entitled “Disrupted Liver Metabolism in GNMT-Deficient Mice is Mitigated by Dietary Methionine Restriction” at the 2021 Hebbel Research Day

October 2021

Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska and Peter Crawford for their paper, “Metabolic and Signaling Roles of Ketone Bodies in Health and Disease”.
Congratulations to David (Blake) Stagg for defending his Ph.D. thesis entitled “The role of hepatocyte D-ß-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase in ketone body metabolism and liver health”.
The Wernimont Lab welcomes Renee Mahr and Dr. Sereen Nashif to the group.

September 2021

Congratulations to Curtis Hughey for his co-authorship on, 'Regulation and role of glycophagy in skeletal muscle energy metabolism.'
Dr. Sarah Wernimont was given the “Mead Johnson Nutrition Early Career Speaker Award” by the Perinatal Research Society during their Annual Meeting in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida.

July 2021

Congratulations to Alisa Nelson for passing her oral PhD qualifying exam for her proposal entitled, 'Mapping metabolic pathways of insulin resistance in the liver microenvironment.' Strong work!

June 2021

Congratulations to Curtis Hughey for his co-authored paper, ‘Multitissue 2H/13C flux analysis reveals reciprocal upregulation of renal gluconeogenesis in hepatic PEPCK-C-knockout mice’
Congratulations to David (Blake) Stagg and members of the Crawford-Puchalska lab for their paper, Diminished ketone interconversion, hepatic TCA cycle flux, and glucose production in D-β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase hepatocyte-deficient mice.

May 2021

The Crawford-Puchalska Lab welcomes Alisha Seay to the group!

April 2021

Congratulations to Greg Shobert (Hughey lab) for his presentation at the 2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Congratulations to David (Blake) Stagg for receiving the Jan Lunden Award!! The Jan Lunden Award honors outstanding research by a graduate or medical student in the field of molecular hepatology.

January 2021

We welcome Sneha Jena, new research associate to the Wernimont lab!

December 2020

Congratulations to Gregory Shobert, Hughey lab, for receiving an award from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). He is testing the role of hepatic gluconeogenesis in the liver-specific and muscular adaptations to exercise.
Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska and members of the Crawford-Puchalska lab for their paper, Determination of ketone bodies in biological samples via rapid UPLC-MS/MS

October 2020

The Crawford-Puchalska lab welcomes Jacob Gillingham to the team. He will be learning and applying targeted metabolomics and lipidomics analyses to mammalian tissue samples.
Congratulations to Patrycja Puchalska and Peter Crawford for their co-authored paper, ‘Mitochondrial pyruvate carriers are required for myocardial stress adaptation.’

September 2020

Congratulations to the Crawford and Puchalska lab for receiving R01 AG069781, ‘Ketogenic Oscillations and Neurometabolic Healthspan,' an inter-institutional project with the University of Kansas Medical Center, with the lab of John Thyfault.
Congratulations to the Crawford and Puchalska lab for receiving a renewal to R01 DK091538, 'Ketone body metabolism and integrated metabolic homeostasis.'
Congratulations to the Crawford and Puchalska lab for receiving Academic Investment Research Program (AIRP) funding, ‘Engineering the inhospitable cancer niche via intercellular metabolic shuttles,’ a collaborative endeavor with Kaylee Schwertfeger, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and David Wood, College of Science and Engineering.

August 2020

Congratulations to Sarah Wernimont for her co-authored paper, ‘Redesigned Care Delivery for Insulin-Requiring Diabetes in Pregnancy Improves Perinatal Glycemic Control While Reducing Neonatal Intensive Care Admissions, Length of Stay, and Costs.’
Congratulations to Curtis Hughey for his co-authored paper, ‘Reciprocity Between Skeletal Muscle AMPK Deletion and Insulin Action in Diet-Induced Obese Mice.’

July 2020

We welcome Sarah Wernimont, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health to the Division of Molecular Medicine!

June 2020

Alisa Nelson, PhD student in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program (Crawford lab), is awarded a 2020-2021 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship. The Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF) provides a unique opportunity for outstanding Ph.D. students who are engaged in interdisciplinary research to study with faculty at one of the University’s interdisciplinary research centers or institutes during the fellowship year. Ms. Nelson’s host center is the Institute for Engineering in Medicine. Congratulations, Alisa!

May 2020

Congratulations to Peter Crawford for his co-authored paper, ‘Pimozide Alleviates Hyperglycemia in Diet-Induced Obesity by Inhibiting Skeletal Muscle Ketone Oxidation.’
Dr. Curtis Hughey collaborates on the publication, Reciprocity Between Skeletal Muscle AMPK Deletion and Insulin Action in Diet-Induced Obese Mice, in the journal Diabetes.
Drs. Peter Crawford and Tim Griffin, professor of Biochemistry, Molecular biology, and Biophysics, obtained a $10,000 award from the UMN Office of Academic Clinical Affairs for the project, ‘Angiotensin Peptide Turnover And Flux In Covid-19 Pathogenesis.’
Dr. Patrycja Puchalska was promoted to Assistant Professor, Division of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Puchalska will continue to develop innovative methods to apply targeted and untargeted metabolomics methodologies to reveal the metabolic origins of fatty liver disease. Congratulations, Patrycja!

April 2020

Dr. Morwena Solivio joins the Hughey Lab. Welcome to the team, Morwena!