Frankie Heyward, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor School Medical School Department Internal Medicine | Neuroscience Biography Frankie Heyward, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center and a member of the Center for Hypothalamic Research. Dr. Heyward holds a secondary appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Dr. Heyward earned a bachelor's in Biology and Psychology from the University of Delaware. He received his doctorate in Neurobiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed postdoctoral research training through joint fellowships at Harvard Medical School, the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He became an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and BIDMC in 2023. Dr. Heyward joined the faculty of UT Southwestern in 2023. The Heyward Nutritional & Behavioral Epigenetics Lab investigates the neuroepigenetic mechanisms regulating synaptic plasticity in the hypothalamus, their role in maintaining body weight set-point, and how their dysregulation contributes to diet-induced obesity, weight-regain, and aging-related impairments in appetite. The Heyward Lab employs a combination of low-input cell-type specific, and single-cell multiomic, genome-wide assessments of gene expression, epigenetic modifications, chromatin accessibility, and transcription factor DNA binding dynamics, as well as mouse genetic and epigenome engineering tools, in vitro and in vivo assessments of transcription factor activation, and animal behavioral assessments. Education Graduate School (2015), Neurobiology Research Interest Epigenetics, Neurobiology, Molecular Biology, Energy Homeostasis Publications AgRP neuron cis-regulatory analysis across hunger states reveals that IRF3 mediates leptin’s acute effects Heyward FD, Liu N, Jacobs C, Machado NL, Ivison R, Uner A, Srinivasan H, Patel SJ, Gulko A, Sermersheim T, Tsai L, Rosen ED Nature communications 2024 Dec 15 Academic ethics of mental health: the national black postdocs framework for the addressment of support for undergraduate and graduate trainees Hayes CA, Berrios-Negron AL, Tamir T, Hardeman KN, Heyward FD Neuropsychopharmacology 2024 Mar 49 637-639 What does Juneteenth mean in STEMM? Beasley HK, Clark AL, Garner A, Heyward FD, Moore E, Nelson RG, Ray K, Silvers S, Stephens D, Woappi Y Cell 2023 Jun 186 2501-2505 Erratum: Young researchers series #3: (Trends in Cell Biology 32, 553–556, 2022) (Trends in Cell Biology (2022) 32(7) (553–556), (S0962892422000800), (10.1016/j.tcb.2022.03.008)) Mukaz DK, Heyward FD, Eche IJ Trends in Cell Biology 2022 Dec 32 1049 Young researchers series #3 Mukaz DK, Heyward FD, Eche IJ Trends in Cell Biology 2022 Jul 32 553-556 Hepatic IRF3 fuels dysglycemia in obesity through direct regulation of Ppp2r1b Patel SJ, Liu N, Piaker S, Gulko A, Andrade ML, Heyward FD, Sermersheim T, Edinger N, Srinivasan H, Emont MP, Westcott GP, Luther J, Chung RT, Yan S, Kumari M, Thomas R, Deleye Y, Tchernof A, White PJ, Baselli GA, Meroni M, De Jesus DF, Ahmad R, Kulkarni RN, Valenti L, Tsai L, Rosen ED Science translational medicine 2022 Mar 14 Obesity weighs down memory through a mechanism involving the neuroepigenetic dysregulation of Sirt1 Heyward FD, Gilliam D, Coleman MA, Gavin CF, Wang J, Kaas G, Trieu R, Lewis J, Moulden J, David Sweatt J Journal of Neuroscience 2016 Jan 36 1324-1335 DNA Methylation in Memory Formation: Emerging Insights Heyward FD, Sweatt JD Neuroscientist 2015 Oct 21 475-489 Freezing to the predator odor 2,4,5 dihydro 2,5 trimethylthiazoline (TMT) is disrupted by olfactory bulb removal but not trigeminal deafferentation Ayers LW, Asok A, Heyward FD, Rosen JB Behavioural Brain Research 2013 Sep 253 54-59 Adult mice maintained on a high-fat diet exhibit object location memory deficits and reduced hippocampal SIRT1 gene expression Heyward FD, Walton RG, Carle MS, Coleman MA, Garvey WT, Sweatt JD Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 2012 Jul 98 25-32 Results 1-10 of 10 1 Professional Associations/Affiliations American Diabetes Association American Heart Association Cellular and Molecular Cognition Society Network of Minority Health Research Investigators (NMRI), NIDDK Phi Kappa Phi, Honor Society Simons Foundation Society for Neuroscience
