Scientists get millions in grants

NIH backs scientists for research into diabetes and serotonin

FAU, Scripps medical research funded.

Two South Florida scientists have been awarded millions of dollars in grants for further medical research.

Scripps Florida scientist Patrick Griffin has been awarded a $2.5 million collaborative grant for diabetes studies, the Jupiter-based institute said this week. The grant is from Brigham and Women’s Hospital by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The new five-year study will investigate whether inhibition of a certain protein plays a role in regulating the body’s response to fat, which could lead to a type 2 diabetes treatment.

Griffin, co-chair of Scripps’ Department of Molecular Medicine, will conduct the research with Dr. Jorge Plutzky from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, as well as Theodore Kamenecka from Scripps’ Department of Molecular Medicine.

Separately, at FAU in Jupiter, scientist Randy Blakely has been awarded a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his research. Blakely and his team have been studying alterations of serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain that has been linked to neuropsychiatric disorders including depression, anxiety, obsessivecompulsive disorder as well as autism spectrum disorder.

Blakely said by understanding how the brain can naturally turn serotonin transporter activity up and down, his team may be able to develop more effective medications including those with milder side effects. Blakely first identified and cloned the Sert gene about 25 years ago.

He is executive director of FAU’s Brain Institute and a professor of biomedical science in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine.