VISITING SPEAKER: OBESITY-LINKED INSULIN RESISTANCE: PATHOGENESIS AND PREVENTION BY FISH-DERIVED NUTRIENTS

Professor André Marette from the Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Quebec, Canada, is the Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Research Team on the Cardiovascular Complications of Diabetes, the Director of the Pfizer/CIHR Research Chair in Insulin Resistance and Cardiovascular Diseases, and Scientific Director of the Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods. Professor Marette is a world leading authority in diabetes and obesity research. His principal research goals are to unravel the molecular mechanisms of action of insulin and exercise on glucose metabolism, and to determine the molecular basis of insulin resistance in obesity and diabetes. His group is currently investigating the role of novel insulin resistance promoting pathways in skeletal muscle and other insulin-target tissues. Of particular interest are the findings of his research team that dietary cod proteins are natural insulin-sensitizing agents that appear to prevent obesity-linked muscle insulin resistance.

In his seminar, Professor Marette will review the current concepts on the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in obesity, focusing on the roles of inflammatory and nutrient sensing pathways in causing defects in insulin signaling in metabolic tissues of animal models and human subjects. This will be followed by a discussion of potential treatments for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and his recent findings showing that fish-derived nutrients (omega-3 PUFA and fish proteins/peptides) may provide novel means to prevent and alleviate these metabolic diseases in both animal models and insulin-resistant individuals.