# Metabolism and Metabolic Health Core

> **NIH NIH U2C** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2023 · $182,673

## Abstract

ABSTRACT—METABOLISM AND METABOLIC HEALTH (MMH) CORE
Investigators interested in mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of obesity, diabetes and related
metabolic diseases will benefit from a comprehensive analysis of components regulating energy balance,
macronutrient combustion and metabolism in live animals. Simple tests that compare food intake to weight
gain, or that measure metabolically-relevant analytes from a single static condition, fail to fully capture nuanced
bioenergetic and metabolic phenotypes, changes in feeding behaviors, or alterations of body composition.
Therefore, the Metabolism and Metabolic Health (MMH) Core has been designed and structured to provide
investigators with expert consultation, state-of-the-art instrumentation, and technical support to assess—in live
mice—energy balance, energy intake (EI) and digestion, energy expenditure (EE), metabolic efficiency, EI-EE
coupling phenotypes, macronutrient metabolism, hormone action and secretion, body/tissue composition, and
associations with the microbiome and xenometabolome. The MMH Core will be service-oriented, client-facing,
and research-supportive. The MMH Core will be staffed by a Leader, co-Leader, Core Coordinator, Technical
Specialists, and 5 Scientific Consultants.
The mission of the MMH Core will be accomplished through the following 2 Specific Aims:
Specific Aim 1: Provide clients with innovative and unique assets and approaches to deeply-
characterize key nodes involved with energy balance, food intake, glucose and triglyceride
metabolism, metabolic hormone sensitivity, body composition and gut microbiota metabolism in live
mice.
Specific Aim 2: Provide clients with consultation services focused on study design and interpretation
of results in the areas of metabolic physiology, obesity, and diabetes.
Under these specific aims, the MMH Core will carry out the following activities:
 • Providing acute, mid, and long -term assessments of EI and sensitivity to EI-regulating hormones in
 male and female mice as models of diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic disorders;
 • Offering a battery of bioenergetics and EE tests, including RER complex pattern and frequency
 analysis, EE-EI coupling as a measure of energy balance regulation, and characterization of TNZ
 and TNP, including under temperature extremes, norepinephrine, exercise, or timed meal
challenges;
 • Conducting analyses of body composition by EchoMRI and PixiMus DEXA and studies of
 macronutrient metabolism via glucose and insulin tolerance tests, continuous glucose monitoring,
 and hepatic triglyceride production;
 • Providing innovative and unique services to assess the microbiome and xenometabolome,
 metabolic and feeding efficiency, and whole-body imaging to complement services obtained from
 the PB Core;
 • Assisting investigators to generate high-quality and reproducible research results for publications,
 pilot data for grant proposals, and preclinical findings to inform human clinical trials;
 • ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10588974
- **Project number:** 1U2CDK135074-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Sean Harrison Adams
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $182,673
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-02-01 → 2028-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10588974

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10588974, Metabolism and Metabolic Health Core (1U2CDK135074-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10588974. Licensed CC0.

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