The fellowship program is an integral part of the Obesity Strategically Focused Research Network. It's also an important step toward the future, as the American Heart Association trained and mentored 10 postdoctoral fellows to be part of an innovative new generation of obesity investigators.
Fellows were assigned to specific teams at each SFRN center. They forged relationships with scientists and mentors inside and outside of their centers as they conducted research on new ways to prevent and treat obesity. The fellows also advanced their careers by networking and presenting research at AHA conferences and meetings.
The American Heart Association provided the fellows with so many means to network, build a group of colleagues and present their research to the (then) president of the AHA, Dr. Ivor Benjamin, she said.
I was very impressed by this diverse group of fellows, who did a great job of helping us move obesity science forward, said Dr. Annabelle Volgman, who chaired the Obesity Strategically Focused Research Network Oversight Advisory Committee.
She said the AHA made it a point to prepare the fellows for a lifetime of developing new strategies to fight obesity and cardiovascular disease.
It's not always just what they're finding that's important. It's the process of learning how to conduct good research and ask further questions. That's the beauty of science: When you get an answer, you get 10 more questions. So, we're teaching the fellows the process of rational thinking and ethical, meaningful research, she said.
Dr. Ann Marie Schmidt, who directed the SFRN Center at NYU, called the fellowship an extraordinary opportunity for young researchers.
Just as importantly, the fellows got to work on an exciting research project and learn from so many other scientists. I think it was a fabulous opportunity for them to learn new ways of answering important questions about diabetes and obesity.
The Fellows
Johns Hopkins University
SFRN Obesity Fellow 2019-2021
Although COVID-19 curtailed many in-person collaborations during the Obesity SFRN, Ruth- Alma Turkson-Ocran, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N. was thrilled to attend several AHA meetings to share ideas and network with colleagues.
Presenting my work at an AHA conference actually enabled me to get the faculty position I have now, said Turkson-Ocran, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
This fellowship has played a tremendous role in my career, and I'm really, really grateful.
Turkson-Ocran's presentation at the American Heart Association's EPI|Lifestyle Scientific Sessions included research she conducted in the Obesity SFRN on time-restricted feeding in obese adults. Her work on the clinical project examined blood pressure patterns among adults who eat 80% of their calories before 1 p.m.
Her results found that time-restricted feeding did not reduce blood pressure compared to usual feeding patterns – an outcome that was the opposite of what she had hypothesized.
That's the interesting part of research: You answer some questions, but then you end up raising more questions, which leads to future work in that area, she said.
Before she joined the Obesity SFRN, Turkson- Ocran had focused on cross-sectional studies. The fellowship gave her a whole new skill set.
Learning to do clinical studies really improved my research methodology, she said. I learned so much about troubleshooting and about the details that go into a successful trial, from data analysis skills to measuring the food in the metabolic kitchen.
The fellowship also gave her a chance to study a predominately Black population – a population that historically has been excluded from research. She applauded the AHA for its progressive thinking in all aspects of the SFRN.
I really love the fact that they were focused on diversifying their training and a diversity of thought, she said. It really gave me an opportunity to also shine as a fellow.
Ruth-Alma Turkson-Ocran, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N.
New York University School of Medicine
SFRN Obesity Fellow, July 2018–June 2020
Like all centers in the Obesity SFRN, NYU was required to have separate research components in basic science, clinical science and population science.
For Henry Ruiz, Ph.D., three was definitely better than one.
I had never been exposed to a setup like that before, and I really appreciated how research improves when people with different perspectives target the same questions, he said.
As part of the basic science project, Ruiz studied how obesity may be worsened by a receptor in the body that brakes energy-burning as a way for humans to survive when food is scarce.
But we now live in a society with an excess of foods and nutrients, so what used to be a good braking mechanism is now actually a bad player that helps us store fats when we really don’t need them, he said.
Working with mouse models, Ruiz focused on blocking the braking system known as RAGE, an acronym for receptor for advanced glycation endproducts. As a result of the blockage, mice boosted their energy expenditure and became less obese.
The findings may one day translate into new drugs and therapies to prevent obesity or help people keep pounds off after they lose them, Ruiz said. As a result of his SFRN fellowship, Ruiz won an NIH career development grant, or K award, and published papers in Cell Reports and The International Journal of Obesity. The second paper was the result of a project he started with Dr. Coleen McNamara of the University of Virginia after the two met during an AHA meeting during his fellowship.
One of the things I valued most from the SFRN was being able to sit down and network with Ph.D.s and M.D.s and interact with leaders in the field. I learned a lot and I really grew as a scientist because of that.
Henry Ruiz, Ph.D.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
SFRN Obesity Fellow 2018–2020
Like a lot of scientists, Samantha Martin, Ph.D. began her career in a laboratory researching cells. To break up the solitude, she'd occasionally talk to the cells.
But they didn't talk back to me, she said with a laugh. Eventually, the isolation got to her, and I found myself not really being happy.
Everything changed when she met Paula Chandler- Laney, a teacher at UAB who told her about a fellowship researching mothers and their children for the Obesity SFRN.
I've always had a passion for working with moms and kids. This was my ideal path, and I wanted desperately to join, so I interviewed and got the position, she said.
Martin worked on UAB's population science project on the intergenerational transmission of obesity in mother-child dyads. One big takeaway from her work is that even though maternal obesity and gestational diabetes are often lumped together, they have different outcomes.
These are essentially two different groups of women, so we identified the need to develop different interventions for both groups, she said. It's important to really empower clinicians and investigators to come up with new strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease for these groups of women.
Her work on the Obesity SFRN was accepted in several publications, including Journal of the American Heart Association. Her fellowship also helped her secure a faculty-level position in UAB's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
This SFRN has really been amazing for my career development, she said.
I met so many great collaborators and incredible mentors at UAB, like Paula Chandler-Laney and Dr. Tim Garvey, who gave me so much advice and support and really pushed me beyond the limits of what I thought I was capable of. The AHA did such a great job of connecting me with a network of people. It really opened doors for me.
Samantha Martin, Ph.D.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
SFRN Obesity Fellow: July 2018–June 2020
Megan Shuey, Ph.D., M.Sc. was already an experienced investigator at Vanderbilt University when she joined the Obesity SFRN. But the fellowship opened her eyes to the power of teamwork and thinking outside the box.
It was truly the first time I was able to take a lead on a collaborative project with others who were doing completely different work than I was, she said. It taught me to be really creative about how to communicate with others.
Diving deep into the world of genetics and precision medicine for obesity and cardiovascular disease, Shuey not only worked with scientists from the other three SFRN centers, but she also compared data with scientists from other AHA SFRNs, including those on atrial fibrillation and vascular disease.
Shuey combed through a huge population database, cleaning the data and identifying different cardiovascular phenotypes. The next steps were to ask a ton of different questions about the impacts of obesity and obesity-related phenotypes on a patient's overall health and precision medicine, she said.
She successfully zeroed in on coronary artery disease, heart attack, atrial fibrillation and peripheral artery disease and quantified the individual risk of each of these different components of metabolic syndrome, she said. We found that getting early control of high blood pressure and some of these other components, independent of weight, can really have an impact.
The research will help medical professionals prioritize which areas to focus on and assist them in counseling patients about weight loss and weight management, she said.
Her work from the SFRN was published in several medical journals, including Obesity Science & Practice and the AHA's Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. Shuey said the fellowship inspired and prepared her for her goal of one day running her own university research lab.
It's a really unique and valuable fellowship. I think the AHA has done an incredible job of taking a multi-pronged approach across disciplines and training fellows in a very holistic manner.
