Billington, Charles J., M.D.

ENDOCRINOLOGY AND METABOLISM/NEUROLOGY

The goal of our laboratory is to understand animal and human energy balance and its abnormalities: obesity, diabetes, hypermetabolism, and others. Human diseases resulting from these abnormalities and their complications are major problems for veterans and for the general population. The brain is likely the key system governing appetite and energy balance, and disorders of those brain systems probably contributed to the clinical problems indicated above. In our principal line of research, we are attempting to understand what appears to be a prominent energy metabolism regulating network n the brain. Several parts of the brain have been found to participate in this network. Our goal is to explore the functional relationships between these brain parts and how they interact to regulate appetite and energy balance. A variety of tools are being used to reach this goal. We directly stimulate specific brain parts with specific chemicals and look for activation of other brain parts, and we stimulate more than one brain party at the same time in order to see what kind of interaction takes place.