Principal Investigator
Paul W. Hruz, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Endocrinology and Diabetes
- Phone: 314-286-2797
- Email: hruz_p@nospam.kids.wustl.edu
Paul Hruz is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes. Hruz has clinical interest in a wide range of endocrine disorders, with a special interest in diabetes mellitus. His research efforts are directed toward understanding facilitative glucose transport as it relates to normal and disordered glucose homeostasis. The laboratory is investigating the in vitro and in vivo effects of HIV protease inhibitors on glucose transporter function. The goal of this research is to identify the molecular mechanisms that lead HIV infected patients receiving PIs to develop insulin resistance. The laboratory is also using these isoform-selective antagonists of the insulin-responsive transporter GLUT4 to understand the role of glucose transport in insulin-responsive tissues. Recent efforts have been directed toward understanding the role of glucose transport in the failing heart. This has led to translational research into the understanding of the influence of insulin resistance in pediatric heart failure.
Personnel
Monique Heitmeier
Research Lab Manager
- Email: heitmeier_m@wustl.edu
Monique Heitmeier is utilizing HIV protease inhibitors that inhibit GLUT1 and/or GLU4 as pharmacological tools to determine how altered glucose homeostasis affects disease pathogenesis in mouse models of heart failure and cancer. Current efforts are focused on determining whether altered glucose metabolism affects the unfolded protein/ER stress response in these models, and how modulation of these pathways impacts the observed phenotype.
Rich Hresko
Senior Scientist
Rich is investigating structure/function relationships in GLUT1 and GLUT4. He is utilizing state-of-the-art methodologies to perform solution-state structural analysis. A major focus of his current work is to identify and characterize GLUT4 interacting proteins that may regulate the activity and/or cellular trafficking of glucose transporters.
Maria Payne
Research Specialist
Maria Payne has extensive experience in metabolic measurements in rodents. She is assisting in a number of studies aimed at determining the effects of altered glucose homeostasis on cardiac function. Her current efforts include the study of beneficial effects of incretin hormones in the failing heart.
Thomas Kraft
Graduate Student
Thomas Kraft is working on solution-state structural analysis of facilitative glucose transport proteins. He is developing novel methodologies for the stable expression and purification of GLUTs. His research is currently funded by a grant from the Children’s Discovery Institute
Past Personnel
Christal Baird
Research Technician
Paul Buske
Randy Colvin
Jeremy Etzkorn
Medical Student
Jan Freiss
Constanze Haufe
Visiting Scientist, Germany
Helena Jonnson
MSTP Student
David Kraus
Research Technician
John Paul Shen
Medical Student
Laura Silbermann
Visiting Researcher, Germany