Grant: CIHR Fellowship

The burden of metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity are ever increasing globally. Research from our lab and others suggest that these disorders could be transferred to subsequent generations resulting in a vicious cycle. Physical exercise is known to enhance the wellbeing of humans, especially people with diabetes and obesity. We and others have shown that exercise during pregnancy can improve both the health of the mother and baby, even if the mother is obese during her pregnancy. Our findings in mice suggest that much of these benefits are from placenta, an organ of pregnancy that takes up nutrients from mother and transfers to baby. Placenta is also capable of producing hormones and proteins that are required for proper pregnancy progression. Our preliminary findings suggest that exercise in mice and humans induces production of at least one important protein. In this current study, I propose to use state of the art methods to discover more placenta proteins that result in beneficial effects on metabolism of the baby and how these proteins function to decrease risk of developing metabolic diseases as the children become adults. Findings from this study will reveal how the mother's exercise can result in adaptations to the placenta that benefits the baby and how in the long term may prevent the development of metabolic diseases. Thus, my career goal is to discover promising new therapies to improve the health of the baby and prevent transfer of diseases from mother to next generation.