Dr Aline Boer, who will be traveling to Germany to research one of the hormones influencing obesity.
Otago's Dr Aline Boer is Germany-bound to work on a collaborative research project which could help manage the growing problem of obesity.
The recently announced third funding round of the Programmes for Project-Related Personal (PPP) Exchange programme will enable Aline and four other New Zealand researchers to undertake research with academic partners from Germany.
Aline, from Otago’s Department of Anatomy, is excited to be selected for the exchange programme, and equally excited to be working with Professor Timo Mueller, from Helmholtz Munich.
“Timo is an expert on a specific hormone known as glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) so this collaboration will be valuable to my research and my own development as a researcher.”
Aline’s project is looking at GIP and its role in obesity and healthy ageing.
GIP is secreted from people's intestines as they eat. It is one of two hormones that stimulate insulin release from the pancreas to help our body deal with the glucose that enters the bloodstream with a meal.
Both hormones have several roles in the body, including influencing type 2 diabetes and weight loss, but it’s unclear just how GIP acts to induce weight loss, where it acts, and what other effects it could have.
Aline’s research is investigating how removal of the GIP receptors in different regions of the brain can impact body weight and metabolism, and whether this could influence ageing and the development of ageing-related conditions.
She presented the initial findings of her project at the European Incretin Study Group conference last April, where she first met Professor Mueller. Their research was well aligned; his group using the same mouse model.
The call from ENZ-DAAD shortly afterwards for applications for the research exchange programme proved excellent timing.
“We agreed to put an application together so that I could visit Timo’s group in Munich, learn several techniques from his team and learn more about their research. And in return, one of his group members, Dr Aaron Novikoff will be visiting us at the Centre for Neuroendocrinology, to learn new techniques with us,” Aline says.
Aline’s will head to Germany for her first visit in May, and Dr Novikoff will travel to New Zealand later in the year.
The early career researcher is excited by the possibilities.
“The ENZ-DAAD grant means I will be able to significantly expand my current research project. with access to leading edge techniques and skills that are currently not used at Otago. Developing these techniques will help to answer my research questions to a greater extent and also help determine a direction for future research projects.
"With this, we can expand our knowledge on how GIP acts in the brain to influence the regulation of body weight and healthy ageing," she says.
"Hopefully, this information can be used to further develop GIP-based therapeutics for type 2 diabetes and obesity, and possibly to increase treatment scope to delay the onset of ageing and increase healthy lifespan. In the longer term, this could benefit Aotearoa New Zealand ageing population.”
Kōrero by Claire Grant, Communications Advisor, School of Biomedical Sciences
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