Maine Med gets $1.3M NIH grant for obesity research

Portland-based Maine Medical Center has received $1.3 million from the National Institutes of Health to study a potential genetic cause of obesity, with the hope of creating new treatments for the disease and even diabetes.

The research will focus on a gene, known as the mesoderm specific transcript, or MEST, according to a news release Thursday announcing the award.

Maine Medical Center Research Institute scientist Robert Koza has been studying MEST and the processes that "turn on" the gene. Koza’s previous studies indicate that animals are less likely to become obese on a high-fat diet when MEST is activated. But researchers still have to determine the function of MEST in the body and the exact processes that regulate it.

The new study aims to answer those questions.

“Identifying the molecular pathways by which MEST facilitates the expansion of fat mass and regulates blood glucose could be the first step towards a new way to help treat obesity,” Koza said in the release. “Years from now, these studies may also define new early interventions doctors could take to help patients prevent the development of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.”

Metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes are a focus of researchers at the research institute because of the diseases' prevalence in Maine. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed Maine as having a diabetes rate of 8.5% and obesity rate of 30%, the highest in New England.