Professor
IRCM
IRCM
Dr. Jennifer Estall is known for her work on transcriptional regulators in nutrient metabolism and diabetes pathogenesis. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, where she held the H.L. Holmes Award from the National Research Council of Canada to support her research. She is currently a Full Research Professor at the Institut de recherches clinique de Montréal (IRCM), holding academic affiliations to the University of Montreal and McGill University. Honours include the CIHR New Investigator Award, FRQS Chercheurs-boursiers and the Diabetes Canada Young Scientist Award. Dr. Estall is an active and governing member of several research networks and associations within Quebec and Canada focused on metabolic disease research. These include the Canadian Islet Research and Training Network (CIRTN), the Montreal Diabetes Research Center (MDRC) and BETTER (BEhaviors, Therapies, TEchnologies and hypoglycemic Risk in T1D).
Her research focuses on beta cell nutrient metabolism and survival, mechanisms of fatty liver disease and obesity-related liver cancer, and how mitochondrial dysfunction impacts diabetes through organ crosstalk. Major discoveries stemming from the Estall lab include identification of PGC-1α as an essential regulator of oxidative stress, insulin action and response to inflammation in liver. These findings highlight the importance of hepatic PGC-1α in overall energy homeostasis and reveal a potential role in the pathogenesis of metabolic liver disease. Her team also discovered a new molecular pathway linking PGC-1α with β-cell lipid metabolism and insulin secretion. She also has a long-standing interest in identifying new effectors of glucagon and GLP hormones in metabolic regulation. She is passionate about creating, improving and systematically evaluating pre-clinical models of metabolic disease. To this end, she has evaluated the strengths and caveats of multiple murine transgenic and diet models.
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Saturday, October 28, 2023
14:00 – 15:00 EST