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| Eric Sheu, MD, PhD |
Eric Sheu, MD, PhD, of the Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery, received a $3.3 million National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) R01 grant to study an intestinal metabolite that may explain how bariatric surgery causes type 2 diabetes remission and might lead to development of new, less-invasive diabetes therapies.
The project, “A Microbiome-Dependent Bile Acid Metabolite Improves Type 2 Diabetes,” examines CA7S, a metabolite that Sheu’s research team, in collaboration with the laboratory of Sloan Devlin, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, discovered is elevated following bariatric surgery and possesses anti-diabetic properties. The team will evaluate CA7S’s therapeutic potential in obesity and diabetes, identify how CA7S production is regulated by the gut microbiome and determine the molecule’s contribution to the metabolic benefits of bariatric surgery.
As a surgeon-scientist, Sheu’s clinical practice focuses on minimally invasive bariatric and foregut surgery, and his laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms that lead to resolution of type 2 diabetes following bariatric surgery. He is also associate program director of the Brigham’s Advanced Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship.
The NIDDK, part of the National Institutes of Health, conducts and supports medical research and research training and disseminates science-based information on endocrine, metabolic, digestive, hematologic diseases and more to improve people’s health and quality of life.
