Category: Science

Metabolism & Nutrition: learning objectives

Lectures Energy metabolism “Explain the Harris-Benedict principle.” Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on June 18, 2015, at 21:06 | 3 comments

Tick bite log

About two months ago, I noticed, for the first time ever, the dreaded red circle around one of my first tick marks of this season. The mark was in the vicinity of the hollow of my left knee, and it was left by a tick that I had discovered about two days after it must have lodged there, plenty of time for it to dump its bacterial payload in my bload. This late discovery is fairly typical for me. I've never been very careful with registering tick bites, and over the year, I've discovered many ticks only after accidentally beheading them while thoughtlessly scratching their abdomen away. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on May 07, 2015, at 18:05 | Comments closed

Metabolism & Nutrition – Tutorial 3: Nutrition and epigenetics

The third tutorial for the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course, was introduced and moderated by Torsten Plösch, who specializes in the epigenetic effects of nutrition during pregnancy. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on April 16, 2015, at 10:04 | 3 comments

Metabolism & Nutrition – Tutorial 1: Caloric restriction (CR)

For the 2015 Metabolism & Nutrition course at the RuG, I'm asked to read two papers on two parralel studies on increased longevity of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) through caloric restriction (CR). Colman et al. (2014) report a positive effect of caloric restriction on longevity for the study at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC), but these effects could not be confirmed by Mattison et al. (2012), with macaques kept at the US National Institute on Aging (NIA). Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on April 06, 2015, at 22:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 3: Fat metabolism

The fat metabolism lecture—lecture 3 in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course—is really two lectures: lecture 3A and 3B are delivered by Janine Kruit and Uwe Tietge, respectively. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on April 06, 2015, at 18:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 4: Carbohydrate metabolism

After the fat lectures today, the 4th lecture in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course was about carbodydrate metabolism. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on April 05, 2015, at 13:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 7: Integration of metabolism

The seventh and final lecture in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course was again delivered by Janine Kruit. This lecture tried to integrate the topics of the previous lectures, with the take-home message being that being obese is unhealthy. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on April 04, 2015, at 10:04 | 1 comment

Metabolism & Nutrition – Tutorial 7: Eatmeter

During the last tutorial in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course, Janine used the aggregated data from all the eatmeter food logs submitted by Group C to bring much of the course's material closer to home. Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on April 01, 2015, at 15:04 | 2 comments

Metabolism & Nutrition – Tutorial 6: Metabolic regulation

Tutorial no. 6 for the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course builds on the lecture [Lecture 5] on the same subject by Hans Jonker. It is also the subject which me and two others have to give a presentation on this Friday for the rest of Group C to initiate the group discussion. The article which is to be discussed during our presentation and the rest of the tutorial is a 2014 Nature publication [doi:10.1038/nm.3760] by Sungsoon Fang et al., titled “Intestinal FXR agonism promotes adipose tissue browning and reduces obesity and insulin resistance.” Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on March 25, 2015, at 15:03 | 3 comments

Metabolism & Nutrition – Lecture 5: Metabolic regulation

The topic of the fifth lecture in the RuG Metabolism & Nutrition course, delivered by Hans Jonker, was regulation of energy metabolism, detailing how the body maintains the homeostatic balance between energy storage (when feeding) and energy burning (during fasting or exercise). Read More »
By Rowan Rodrik, 5 years ago, on March 24, 2015, at 22:03 | 2 comments