Novo Nordisk Fonden - Understanding the role of Mdm2 in adipocyte biology

The epidemic of obesity is one of the major challenges facing Western societies. The hallmark of obesity is enlarged and dysfunctional adipose tissues often leading to complications such as type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Better understanding of adipocyte biology is therefore mandatory in the development of future cures for obesity and T2DM.

Murine double minute 2 (Mdm2) is an ubiquitin ligase normally associated with cancer through its control of p53 stability. The recent association of the p53 with control metabolism and our unpublished data showing that Mdm2 is obligatory for adipocyte differentiation have encouraged us to examine the function of Mdm2 in adipocyte biology.
We wish to explore the function of Mdm2 in two aspects of adipocyte function: the response of the adipocyte to insulin and the regulation of white vs. brown adipocyte differentiation.