Dr. Jason K. Kim, Director

Welcome to the Metabolic Disease Research Center!

The UMass Metabolic Disease Research Center (MDRC), formerly the National Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center, is a core facility that performs an array of sophisticated and standardized experiments using state-of-the-art equipment for the purpose of investigating transgenic mouse models of diabetes, obesity, and metabolic liver disease.  The goal of the MDRC is to provide a comprehensive metabolic and functional characterization of mouse models of human diseases that are developed by academic and industry researchers in joint efforts to understand metabolic diseases and to identify new therapies.  The MDRC consists of the following expertise: 1) elegant and physiologic metabolic experiments to assess insulin sensitivity, glucose and lipid metabolism, pancreatic b-cell function, glucagon action, body composition, and energy balance in awake mice, 2) high-throughput analytical experiments using Cobas Clinical Chemistry Analyzer and Multiplexed-Luminex to measure serum and tissue levels of hormones, cytokines, chemokines, and metabolites, 3) functional experiments using state-of-the-art instruments to noninvasively measure liver steatosis and fibrosis (SonoVol Vega Wide-field Ultrasound Imaging System), exercise capacity (treadmills), and cardiovascular parameters (VisualSonics In Vivo Imaging System, CODA blood pressure monitoring device) in mice, 4) molecular experiments to analyze genes and proteins for intracellular signaling activity using Jess Multiplexing Western System, and 5) industry-standard preclinical drug trial studies combined with metabolic, physiologic, functional, analytical, and molecular tests for in vivo validation of drug candidates for academic and industry researchers.