Dr. Deanna Arble, associate professor of biological sciences in the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award to assess how light can induce sustained changes in cellular metabolism.
The Fulbright Scholar Award allows faculty members to conduct research and teaching opportunities overseas. Arble’s lab studies the relationships between sleep, breathing, circadian rhythms and obesity. Through this award, she will travel to the University of Coimbra in Portugal to collaborate with Dr. Paulo J. Oliveira, an expert on cellular metabolism.
“Obesity affects over 650 million adults worldwide and drives rising rates of disease and early mortality,” Arble said. “While emerging evidence links environmental light exposure to obesity, its clinical magnitude and mechanistic role in body weight regulation remain unknown. By combining my expertise in circadian biology with Dr. Oliveira’s strengths in cellular metabolism, this work is poised to catalyze new strategies for obesity prevention using light as a novel, non-invasive intervention.”
Arble will utilize this award to investigate southern European populations with naturally high light exposure. With her colleague at the University of Coimbra , they will use urine-derived stem cells to assess how light induces sustained changes in cellular metabolism and body weight regulation.
“We are very excited for Dr. Arble and this great opportunity through the Fulbright Scholars program,” said Dr. Heather Hathaway, acting dean of the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences. “Her collaboration has the opportunity to create truly novel approaches to addressing the obesity epidemic.”
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build lasting connections between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.
