Shangang Zhao, PhD

Assistant Professor

Personal Statement:

Dr. Zhao has made important contributions in the fields of obesity and diabetes and solved several long-standing puzzling questions in the field. He proposed that ABHD6-accessible monoacylglycerols function as a metabolic coupling factor in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (Cell Metabolism, 2014) and inhibition of ABHD6 in mice induces browning of white adipocytes and prevents obesity and type 2 diabetes (Cell Reports, 2016). In addition, Dr. Zhao has identified a new enzyme G3PP, located at the crossroad of glucose and lipid metabolism (PNAS, 2016). This new enzyme G3PP has been highlighted in the PNAS as “it has been rare in the last half a century to discover novel enzymes behind the metabolism of nutrients in mammal tissue, and that so significant are the findings that they may even prompt revisions to biochemistry textbooks.” Furthermore, Dr. Zhao has made a series of landmark discoveries in the field of leptin. His unexpected and exciting observations on partial leptin reduction in obese mice lead to a publication in Cell Metabolism (2019). Furthermore, he demonstrated that a lower leptin level during the progression to diet-induced obesity is beneficial to maintain metabolic health (Molecular Metabolism, 2020). Very recently, Dr. Zhao has demonstrated that hyperleptinemia contributes to anti-psychotic drug-induced weight gain and metabolic disorders (Science Translation Medicine, 2023). Based on these observations, he wrote two review articles with Dr. Philipp Scherer in Diabetes (2020) and Circulation Research (2021) and proposed the new concept that “less leptin is more” under obesogenic conditions. His recent discoveries have broken the dogma in the leptin field and called for a paradigm shift from leptin therapy to leptin lowering strategy to treat diet-induced obesity and type 2 diabetes. These discoveries will have profound influence in developing novel therapies to treat diet-induced obesity and its associated metabolic disorders.