Marc Thomas Hamilton, PhD

Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences

University of Missouri-Columbia
E102 Veterinary Medicine Building
Columbia, MO 65211
573-882-6527
HamiltonM@missouri.edu

Dr. Hamilton studies the molecular and physiological mechanisms by which physical inactivity causes chronic metabolic diseases related to poor plasma lipid metabolism (coronary artery disease, Type II diabetes, obesity). Studies have sought to discover the genes and signals linking physical inactivity to disease, especially those processes related to fatty acid metabolism in skeletal muscle.

Using microarray methodologies, his laboratory has been characterizing the response of a large percentage of the genome to exercise training, inactivity, and identifying both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional events influenced by fatty acids. Related research has been focused on our provocative finding that there is a large cluster of genes expressed in skeletal muscle that regulate plasma lipid metabolism. Skeletal muscle tissue may be an important site of synthesis for proteins that are secreted into the blood stream and then are important for protecting against metabolic diseases. Microarray work is also beginning to study human muscle during exercise, bedrest, and microgravity.

His major emphasis has focused on the molecular mechanisms regulating skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase (LPL). Using both physiological and molecular approaches, we are studying the specific cellular factors that so potently "turn-off" LPL activity in skeletal muscle capillaries by as much as 90% when young animals become sedentary or old animals age.

More information about Dr. Hamilton and his lab can be found here.

Research Areas of Interest

Aging & life span
Bioinformatics
Cardiovascular biology/ research
Cell biology
Cellular signaling
Comparative physiology
Diabetes
DNA/RNA hybridization
Exercise
Exercise physiology
Genetics
Genomic biology
In vitro transcription
Metabolism
Microarray analysis
Molecular biology
Molecular genetics
Musculoskeletal biology

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