Solutions From Cells to Society

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Solutions From Cells to Society

Pennington Biomedical: longer, healthier lives start with world-class scientists and leading-edge research

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Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Advancing Scientific Discovery AT PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL we’re in the business of bringing solutions from cells to society.

In 2021, we launched a groundbreaking national campaign called Obecity, USA to spotlight what everyone at Pennington Biomedical has known for some time: obesity is a chronic disease. It results from a number of factors, many of which individuals do not control.

Ending the stigma of obesity will foster meaningful conversations in doctors’ offices, in public policy settings, and even around the dinner table. These kinds of honest discussions will help end this epidemic.

We played a critical role in the fight against COVID. We participated in our first vaccine trial to study the safety of the Moderna vaccine in children. In another study with school-aged children, we helped develop and test a non-invasive biomarker to signal the virus’s presence.

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When we heard that more children were being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes during the pandemic, we undertook a retrospective study. We found that locally, twice as many children were being hospitalized with Type 2 diabetes.

We also continued to engage in cutting-edge research. For example, we are a clinical research site for Nutrition for Precision Health. This is a national federally funded effort that will use machine learning to factor in everything—from a person’s genetics and metabolism to their microbiome and environment—in order to predict whether a particular diet will improve an individual’s health.

Research initiatives like Nutrition for Precision Health are what we at Pennington Biomedical mean when we say we’re bringing solutions from cells to society. Every day, we are advancing scientific discovery that helps millions of people live longer and better lives.

It’s who we are. It’s what we do. It’s the business we’re in.

John Kirwan, PhD Executive Director

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Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Putting Science to Work PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER is dedicated to creating a healthier Louisiana. A world research leader right here in Baton Rouge, its mission is to discover the triggers of chronic diseases through innovative research that improves human health across the lifespan.

Pennington Biomedical is at the forefront of medical discovery as it relates to understanding the causes of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. It is a campus of Louisiana State University and conducts basic, clinical and population research.

The center includes approximately 65 faculty and more than 20 post-doctoral fellows who comprise a network of 44 laboratories staffed by lab technicians, nurses, dietitians and support personnel, and 13 highly specialized core service facilities. The center’s 450 employees perform research activities in state-of-theart facilities on the 222-acre campus.

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Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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Metabolic Chambers:

Gaining insight into how the body works YOU CAN GET a great estimate from a fitness tracker on how many calories you burn throughout the day, but to get a more accurate measurement, scientists use a powerful tool called a whole-room calorimeter (or a metabolic chamber). Not only can a metabolic chamber measure how many calories are burned, but it can also shed light on what kind of calories are being burned and whether they are from fat, protein or carbohydrates.

LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center is one of a select few institutions around the world to house not one, but four metabolic chambers. Our scientists use the chambers to learn more about how different diets, exercise routines, supplements or other lifestyle factors impact our metabolism.

Gathering this information is vital to the mission at Pennington Biomedical of combatting obesity and its associated chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Pennington Biomedical’s metabolic chambers resemble dorm rooms or small hotel rooms, each one with a bed, a television, a desk with a laptop computer, a sink and a toilet.

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BY THE NUMBERS The number of calories a person burns throughout the day depends on their size and activity level. Someone who is smaller and sedentary may burn around 1,200-1,400 calories in a day. The average American burns 2,000 calories a day, although a taller person who weighs more and has more muscle may burn significantly more calories.

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Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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GO WITH THE FLOW Here’s how the metabolic chambers work: fresh air is circulated into the room and as it flows out of the room, it goes through a series of analyzers that measures the ratio of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the room. All three measurements—oxygen consumed and the carbon dioxide and nitrogen exhaled—are plugged into a calculation that can give scientists a detailed look at metabolism.

During their stay in the metabolic chamber, people spend most of their time relaxing and doing what they might have spent their downtime doing anyway—watching TV or movies, reading or playing games online, or talking on the phone.

Most stays in the metabolic chamber are 23 hours long, since it is important to measure how many calories are burned during sleep.

“The respiratory quotient—or ratio of carbon dioxide exhaled and oxygen inhaled—during sleep is a really good measurement for metabolism, since sleep is a time when the body is conserving energy,” said Dr. Jennifer Rood, Associate Executive Director for Cores and Resources at Pennington Biomedical.

MEALS AND METABOLISM At fixed times, a registered dietitian prepares each meal and delivers it to the study participant via a small, air-locked cupboard—that way, all the air can be accounted for and scientists can get a more accurate reading on metabolism. Renee Puyau, RD, Director of the Metabolic Kitchen, explains that researchers must know exactly how many calories and nutrients participants are receiving as part of a clinical study diet, and it is equally important that all the participants in a study receive the exact same foods in the exact same proportions. Registered dieticians and scientists work together to carefully design menus and recipes that will meet specific requirements for different clinical study protocols.

“Meals for clinical studies are planned and prepared to contain a specific number of calo-

ries, macronutrients and even micronutrients,” Puyau said. “When we prepare study meals in the Metabolic Kitchen, all foods are weighed to one-tenth of one gram, ensuring that study participants receive the exact number of calories and nutrients that are prescribed to them according to the study protocol.”

For researchers at Pennington Biomedical who are working to combat chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, metabolic chambers are invaluable and rare instruments. “We get incredible insight about how the body works from our metabolic chambers—information that we can then use to develop new targets for treating diseases that affect our quality of life.

Our ultimate goal is to help people improve their quality and length of life,” said Rood.

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Finding Inspiration in the Unknown EVERYBODY LOVES a good “aha moment.”

To find those moments, Dr. Eric Ravussin encourages scientists to seek answers to questions they feel hold uncharted answers. A scientist cannot be afraid of the unknown, he says. Rather, the unknown should be inspiration for finding those curveball discoveries.

One major query continues to drive Ravussin’s research: Why do some people naturally burn more energy than others?

The easy answer is genetics, but Ravussin strives to understand the molecular mechanisms behind the phenomenon of human metabolism. Much of his work revolves around determining differences among people in energy expenditure, fat burning and why some people develop diabetes with obesity while others don’t.

Hailing from Lausanne, Switzerland, Dr. Ravussin is one of today’s most renowned and respected researchers for his work related to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and human metabolism.

“We are not just scientists. We are entrepreneurs,” he said. “This career is about being creative and developing new ideas to overcome the health challenges that are facing your society.”

Dr. Ravussin has attracted more than $80 million in research grants and contracts, become a Boyd Professor in the LSU system, published more than 550 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and mentored more than 60 postdoctoral fellows. He has received most of the prestigious national and international awards in obesity and nutrition research, including the 2021 Bray Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award in Obesity Research. He is a past president of The Obesity Society (TOS) and the Editor in Chief of the journal Obesity. He is also Associate Executive Director for Clinical Science at Pennington Biomedical and oversees the metabolic chambers, a research core that assesses energy output in people.

Ravussin’s work includes impressive breakthroughs in human physiology, including how genetics influence metabolism, the major determinants of energy expenditure, and the positive effects of long-term calorie restriction.

Despite his long list of accomplishments, his major pride and happiness lie in his mentees. Even after earning a lifetime achievement award, Ravussin credits his postdoctoral fellows for much of his success.

After nearly 20 years at Pennington Biomedical, Dr. Ravussin said the center has shown tremendous growth in facilities and employees as well as in creativity and entrepreneurship. “This is a unique place,” he said, “because under one roof we have all the different facets of knowledge about obesity research. With outstanding facilities and exceptional equipment, we are an avenue for phenomenal research.”

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Eric Ravussin

“It isn’t the studies I’ve done or the discoveries I’ve made that will ultimately make a difference.

It is the young scientists I have mentored that will eventually change the world.”

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Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Dedicated to Diabetes Research MORE THAN 400 million people are living with Type 2 diabetes worldwide, and the incidence rate in Louisiana is twice the national average.

Jacqueline Stephens is one of the researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center dedicated to advancing knowledge of this pervasive disease.

“Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the world, the leading cause of non-accident-related limb loss, and is why many people need kidney dialysis. The cost of this health care burden is enormous,” she said.

Stephens specifically studies fat cells for a number of reasons. More than 85 percent of people with Type 2 diabetes have obesity, which is excess fat accumulation. Fat cells are important in the action of insulin and a variety of other hormones that contribute to metabolic processes.

“Most people look at fat as something to lose. And it’s true that in some instances, Type 2 diabetes can be reversed with weight loss,” Stephens explained. “But fat cells are really important to your health. They influence everything from your appetite to your immune system. Disrupting just one of fat cells’ many functions can affect your entire metabolic system, such as the way your body breaks down lipids, like cholesterol, and blood sugar.

However, it’s important to remember there are differences between a healthy fat cell—where even people who have obesity don’t develop diabetes—and an unhealthy fat cell that promotes the development of diabetes.”

Stephens also studies genes, proteins, and various factors at the molecular level, where hundreds, if not thousands, of processes can go wrong and trigger a metabolic disease state.

“Basic science projects are really complex and take a long time to complete,” says Stephens. “As a basic scientist, you really have to be in it for the long haul, and that’s okay with me. Most scientists, like myself, don’t do research for profit and we don’t do it for the promise of some new technology that’s going to change our lives tomorrow. We do it to understand the world around us and to hopefully make it a better place.”

Jacqueline Stephens

“To me, each scientist is putting a brick into a cathedral of understanding where each brick rests on ones that have been placed there before it.”

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Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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Helping Cancer Patients Live Longer JUSTIN BROWN was only 14 when his father passed away from colon cancer. Justin’s future career path became instantly clear. “My mission is motivated by the need to prevent children from having to watch their parents melt away from cancer,” he said.

Although a sizable percentage of patients with colon cancer initially beat it, 30 to 50 percent of them relapse—and 90 percent of those who relapse die within two years. This is exactly what happened to Dr. Brown’s father. At just 46 years old, he was diagnosed with early-stage colon cancer. Usually, patients under age 50 are not screened, so Dr. Brown’s father was too young to receive the devastating prognosis. He was cancer-free after surgery, but at 48, he relapsed.

Dr. Brown was a Research Fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and was recruited to Pennington Biomedical to lead the newly created Cancer Metabolism Research Program. His research has a particular focus on cancer survivorship and prevention through nutrition, weight control, physical activity and chemopreventive strategies. Evidence suggests that patients who are physically active after their first cancer diagnosis are less likely to relapse. Dr. Brown wants to understand how and why losing weight, managing weight, and managing diabetes can prevent a relapse. His research builds on Pennington Biomedical’s strengths and further expands the Center’s collaborative relationships with regional cancer centers and health professionals.

“We know that small steps toward healthy lifelong habits can make a big difference in how cancer survivors feel, function, and survive,” he said. “With our new program, cancer survivors across Baton Rouge can now enroll in a 10-week program to determine if a lifestyle program that includes exercise, diet, and weight management helps cancer survivors improve overall wellness and prevents cancer recurrence.”

Reflecting on his work, Dr. Brown said, “My father left too early, but at the end of the day he is the motivation behind the work that I do here every day, finding ways to help people live longer with a higher quality of life. I am grateful for all those who have generously invested in our vision of a world where cancer survivors thrive.”

To learn more about this cancer program, visit www.pbrc.edu/smallsteps

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Justin Brown

Brown’s mission is motivated by the need to prevent children from having to watch their parents suffer from cancer.

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