Christine Kusminski, Ph.D.

Originally from England, Dr. Kusminski completed her graduate work at The University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. Drawn by the collaborative interdisciplinary research utilized to study Obesity and Type 2 diabetes and their associated co-morbidities, Dr. Kusminski brings to the Touchstone Diabetes Center at UTSW a strong background in mitochondrial bioenergetics, in the context of adipose tissue physiology and energy metabolism. Her current research focuses on: 1) how regulating mitochondrial activity and shifting substrate-flux influences cellular and tissue function to alter whole-body lipid and glucose homeostasis; 2) evaluating the integrated signaling mechanisms that govern white adipose tissue expansion under metabolic perturbations, such as surplus caloric-intake; and 3) understanding how pancreatic alpha and beta cells interact in a diabetic setting.

Graduate School

University of Warwick - ? (2007)

• Mechanisms Underlying Diabetes-associated Lipotoxicity
• Mitochondrial Function in Adipose Tissue Expansion and Whole-body Energy Homeostasis
• Obesity and Adipose Tissue Physiology
• Pancreatic Alpha and Beta Cell Signaling

Featured Publications

MitoNEET-driven alterations in adipocyte mitochondrial activity reveal a crucial adaptive process that preserves insulin sensitivity in obesity.

Kusminski CM, Holland WL, Sun K, Park J, Spurgin SB, Lin Y, Askew GR, Simcox JA, McClain DA, Li C, Scherer PE Nat. Med. 2012 Oct 18 10 1539-49

Mitochondrial dysfunction in white adipose tissue.

Kusminski CM, Scherer PE Trends Endocrinol. Metab. 2012 Sep 23 9 435-43

Leptin receptor signaling supports cancer cell metabolism through suppression of mitochondrial respiration in vivo.

Park J, Kusminski CM, Chua SC, Scherer PE Am. J. Pathol. 2010 Dec 177 6 3133-44

Diabetes and apoptosis: lipotoxicity.

Kusminski CM, Shetty S, Orci L, Unger RH, Scherer PE Apoptosis 2009 Dec 14 12 1484-95

The in vitro effects of resistin on the innate immune signaling pathway in isolated human subcutaneous adipocytes.

Kusminski CM, da Silva NF, Creely SJ, Fisher FM, Harte AL, Baker AR, Kumar S, McTernan PG J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2007 Jan 92 1 270-6

• JDRF Award
  Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Grant (2007)
• ASO Award
  Ph.D. Student Research of the Year Award, Association for the Study of Obesity, London, UK (2006)
• Albert Renold Award
  Fellowship Award from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD), Dusseldorf, Germany (2005)

• American Heart Association (2013)
• Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (2007)
• Association for the Study of Obesity, UK (2006-2007)
• British Endocrine Society, UK (2004-2008)
• European Association for the Study of Diabetes (2004-2008)