About
Highlights
As a renal physiologist and nutritionist, by training, I have focused heavily on regulation of the kidney by insulin and in altered metabolic states, such as obesity and both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Coming from a productive fellowship at the NIH in Dr. Mark Knepper’s laboratory, I have been funded as a Principal Investigator by the U.S. government via K01, R01, and R21 mechanisms; foundations, e.g., the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, the National Kidney Foundation, as well as by industry.
Experience
In the last 10 years, I generated a number of mouse lines with renal-cell-specific knockout of the insulin receptor (Insr). I am now expanding these studies to include knockout of the insulin-like growth factor receptor (Igfr1), the mammalian target of rapamycin (mtor) and microRNA 451, a microRNA with a putative role in diabetic nephropathy. In 2013, I conducted a sabbatical at the NIH to be trained in deep sequencing and transcriptomics and am incorporating these novel approaches in the laboratory. In general, we conduct whole animal studies (mice and rats), measure blood pressure by radiotelemetry, assess metabolic parameters such as glucose tolerance, and determine protein and RNA expression in the kidney using a variety of molecular means.
Education
Dr. Ecelbarger received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Nutritional Sciences in 1992. She went on to train as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. She started her own laboratory at Georgetown University in 1998 and has been funded from the NIH as well as private sources.
