{"id":11791,"date":"2012-10-08T14:12:09","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T14:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=11791"},"modified":"2012-10-08T14:12:09","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T14:12:09","slug":"big-thinkers-abraham-kovoor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2012\/10\/08\/big-thinkers-abraham-kovoor\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Thinkers- Abraham Kovoor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-11968\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1223\/bt-Kovoor1.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1223\/bt-Kovoor1.jpg 250w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1223\/bt-Kovoor1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1223\/bt-Kovoor1-125x125.jpg 125w, https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1223\/bt-Kovoor1-80x80.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/>Title<\/strong>: Assistant Professor, Biomedical &amp; Pharmaceutical Sciences<br \/>\n<strong>Expertise<\/strong>: Biochemistry of Brain Molecules; Improved Drug Therapies<br \/>\nWe\u2019re just too fat. Obesity in the United States is common and the health problems it causes are enormous. It\u2019s something that doctors, psychologists, teachers, parents, scientists, and so many others have long struggled to understand: What regulates our body weight?<br \/>\n<strong>Professor Abraham Kovoor<\/strong>, a molecular biologist at the University of Rhode Island\u2019s College of Pharmacy, didn\u2019t set out to answer this question. Not until he\u00a0stumbled upon the link between body weight and the brain protein RGS9\u20132. He had been studying this protein to understand its role in the movement side effects of drugs used to treat patients with Parkinson\u2019s disease and schizophrenia.<br \/>\n\u201cEssentially, we believe we\u2019ve identified a new gene that likely controls weight gain through actions in the brain that regulate metabolism,\u201d said the scientist who\u2019s studied the protein with colleagues for almost a decade. \u201cWhen we examined individuals with a certain variation in the RGS9 gene, we found they had an increased body mass index. Our further studies indicate that altered functioning of the protein may increase fat and lead to obesity,\u201d <a title=\"Abraham Kovoor, Ph.D.\" href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/meet\/abraham-kovoor\/\">Professor Kovoor<\/a> explained.<br \/>\nSince the protein is expressed largely in the brain and hasn\u2019t been detected in fat tissue,\u00a0Professor Kovoor and his colleagues are studying\u00a0RGS9 at the cellular level to better understand the brain mechanisms underlying the control of body weight.<br \/>\nAt the same time, Professor Kovoor continues to study variations in the RGS9 gene with the hope of developing a simple blood test to help doctors\u00a0optimize the most effective, least harmful drug therapy for individuals with Parkinson\u2019s disease and schizophrenia. He says part of the reason he joined URI in 2007 was because it\u2019s a research university that is supportive of his work with biotech companies for such developments.<br \/>\nProfessor Kovoor also says he\u2019s been fortunate to participate with such programs as the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/inbre\/index.shtml\">INBRE<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/inbre\/surp\/research.shtml\">Undergraduate Research Fellowships<\/a> that have allowed him to work with and help to promote the growth of a new generation of scientists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: Assistant Professor, Biomedical &amp; Pharmaceutical Sciences Expertise: Biochemistry of Brain Molecules; Improved Drug Therapies We\u2019re just too fat. Obesity in the United States is common and the health problems it causes are enormous. It\u2019s something that doctors, psychologists, teachers, parents, scientists, and so many others have long struggled to understand: What regulates our body [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":11968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[176,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-people-kovoor","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}