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Scripps Research Joint Appointments

Faculty, Kellogg School of Science and Technology

Research Focus

Circadian clocks enable organisms to keep track of the time of day and to adjust their physiology to recurring, and therefore predictable, daily changes in the external environment, including food availability. Our work and others’ have demonstrated that circadian clocks are critical regulators of mammalian metabolic physiology: epidemiological evidence shows that shift workers are at increased risk of metabolic disease and genetic and biochemical studies have shown that clocks in the liver, muscle and pancreas directly modulate metabolic processes to regulate glucose production and utilization. We are studying the molecular basis for the circadian control of metabolism to enable novel therapies to treat metabolic disease.

Education

Ph.D., Biophysics, Harvard University, 2003
B.A., Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 1996

Selected References

Lamia KA, Sachdeva UM, DiTacchio L, Williams EC, Alvarez JG, Egan DF, Vasquez DS, Juguilon H, Panda S, Shaw RJ, Thompson CB and Evans RM. AMPK Regulates Circadian Clocks by Phosphorylation and Degradation of Cryptochromes. Science 2009 Oct 16; 326(5951):437-40.

Lamia KA and Evans RM. Tick, tock, a beta cell clock. Nature 2010 Jul 29; 466(7306):571-2.

Lamia KA, Storch KF and Weitz CJ. Physiological Importance of a Peripheral Tissue Circadian Clock. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Sep 30; 105(39):15172-7.

Shaw RJ, Lamia KA, Vasquez D, Koo S-H, Bardeesy N, DePinho RA, Montminy M, and Cantley LC. The Kinase LKB1 Mediates Glucose Homeostasis in Liver and Therapeutic Effects of Metformin. Science. 2005 Dec 9;310(5754):1642-6.