Dr. Guorong Wu was part of an interdisciplinary team that was just awarded a SOM Team Science grant for the project “Energy allocation between brain and periphery in children with and without obesity.”
Pediatric obesity is increasingly viewed as a brain-related condition, as higher BMI in children is linked to structural and functional brain differences, and early development is a period of exceptionally high brain energy demand that may trade off with peripheral growth. This project will test whether children with obesity (ages 5–10) show reduced cortical thickness/brain volume and lower whole-brain energy metabolism (e.g., CMRO₂, ATP-related measures), and whether brain energy expenditure is inversely related to peripheral energy expenditure measured by indirect calorimetry. Dr. Wu will lead the data analysis using normative modeling techniques and explore clinical applications using generative AI. Othe PIs are in Endocrinology and Radiology.
The School of Medicine’s Strategic Plan supports the annual Translational Team Science (TTS) Award, which is aimed at capitalizing on the “culture of collaboration” at UNC Chapel Hill to foster new synergistic interdisciplinary teams of basic science and clinical investigators.