John Haley receives NIH fellowship to research metabolic signaling in the liver

John Haley, a PhD student in our lab, was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The four-year fellowship will allow him to study the impact that signaling and metabolic pathways have on a nutrient-sensing complex in the liver.

“I’m very excited to have gotten this NIH award,” Haley said. “This is similar to what we do currently in the lab, but we’re pivoting to focus more on the liver in this project as opposed to the other tissues that we study.” Haley will receive $33,000 a year for the next four years.

The purpose of this Kirschstein-NRSA program is to enable promising predoctoral students with potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientists, to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research.

“This award will allow me to put more emphasis on studying the liver as opposed to where this lab is mainly funded now, which is investigating brown fat,” he said.

Haley, who has a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Stony Brook University, became interested in metabolic research to better understand how diseases like obesity affect humans.

“Obesity is a very important global health concern, and there are a lot of complications associated with it, such as type 2 diabetes and liver disease,” Haley said. “If we can better understand the metabolic consequences that take place during obesity, we’ll be able to come up with better therapeutic strategies to treat people with these diseases.”