Development of Novel Therapies for NIDDM

The overarching goal of this program project grant is the development of technologies that lead to new methods for studying, detecting, and treating type 2 diabetes, and their integration with hypothesis-driven diabetes research projects. Project 4 of the grant, led by Dr. Craig Malloy at UTSW, will develop and apply new technology in MRI to test core hypotheses about the development of insulin resistance in people. The long-term goal is to develop technology to monitor metabolism in skeletal muscle, brain and the liver using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in a 3 Tesla and 7 Tesla MRI scanners. These advanced imaging methods allow researchers to take pictures of the inside of the body and to measure metabolism as it occurs in the MRI scanner. Standard clinical MRI for medical diagnosis and treatment is performed in a 1 Tesla or 3 Tesla MRI scanner. A primary goal of the 7 Tesla research program is to develop a group of protocols for investigating specific metabolic pathways in adipose (fat) tissue, skeletal muscle and the liver. This study is being done to improve methods of imaging and measuring molecules in a 3 Tesla or 7 Tesla scanners.