"My name is Dr. Michael J. Krashes.
We're in the National Institute of Health, Clinical Building 10.
I've been at the NIH now for just over a year.
Our main culprit is probably obesity and feeding related disorders.
What we do in the lab, typically, is we go after the neural circuits, or the actual cells
in the brain, called neurons, and we try to figure out which ones of those ... which,
as groups of those neurons ... actually influence changes in appetite.
I'm from just outside of Boston, and I was there throughout my entire life.
I did my undergrad, my grad work, and my postdoc all in the Boston area.
This past year has been the first time I ever moved.
My mother was a chemist, so that's what led me into the world of science, both scientifically,
and through her work ethic ... has really kind of pushed me in the direction that I've
taken.
I always wanted to be a medical doctor even after I graduated college.
I still really wanted to go that way.
I started working at a laboratory for the first time, and it really peaked my interest
in pursuing this career.
So right now we are at a stage, where about five years ago, we really identified a group
of neurons that we can just turn on and off like you would imagine turning on and off
a light switch.
You turn these neurons on and it just causes the animal to eat until it can not eat anymore.
I think that was really the turning point in our field of feeding because it really
showed that there were specific neurons ... specific cells in the brain, that can control such
a stereotyped behavior.
What we are looking at here are specific subsets of neurons in a part of the hypothalamus that
regulates feeding behavior.
In this specific group of neurons ... If you're able to just turn them on like a light switch,
they will cause the animal to go, and seek out, and eat food.
To really tie in how those neural circuits are all related to one another, it's really
the future of where this field is going.
We like to bring the brain tissue back into the lab.
What we will do is actually slice the brain tissue with a microtome and then cut it up
into thin slices.
We can then place that on slides and investigate our circuits using microscopy.
Can you imagine?
You go through the entire brain and it takes about an hour.
It's pretty time consuming, but worth it in the end.
This is what we then mount of those microscope slides so that we can look at it under the
microscopes.
Obesity is this huge epidemic, especially in well developed countries like the United
States.
Having a better understanding of how the brain actually controls eating will help to ... lead
to therapeutic targets of drugs that can actually have an effect, and fight the war on obesity.
It's very collaborative, the work that we do here, both within the NIH, and outside.
We have collaborators within our branch, as well as collaborators outside of the institution.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So, yesterday you photostimulated the AGRP?
Speaker 2: M-hm.
Speaker 2: .081, you know?
Speaker 1: Okay, so very little.
I would say that we will do that experiment one more time.
I was thinking tomorrow, but now that I'm thinking about it, I really want you to do
it.
I want you to experience it.
Maybe we'll just do it first thing on Friday morning... and then repeat ... We want to
do the repetitive reinforcement of feeding in the hungry state ... so during the conditioning
phase ... and then at the testing phase, we'll then photostimulate AGRP neurons and try to
mimic that hunger effect.
The way that we can actually go inside and really control specific molecular leads ... circumscribe
discreet neurons ... and how we can just, again, turn them on and off with different
techniques, really puts us at the forefront of neuroscience.
We have all the opportunities to do so here at the NIH.
Don't be completely set with one path, because I feel as life progresses, you experience
all new types of experiences.
Something will really peak your interest and set you on the right path.