Dr Kimberley Bennett

My research experience is in the diving and fasting physiology of grey and southern elephant seals and I have a wider interest in human and animal physiology. I am particularly interested in metabolism, energetics and hormonal regulation of energy balance. During my PhD at the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews I aimed to identify hormones that are involved in energy partitioning and the signalling of information about energy balance in fasting grey seal pups. I worked particularly on leptin, a protein normally involved in fat regulation in land animals, and cortisol. We showed that seal leptin genes are substantially different from other leptins in places that are normally highly conserved, and that it is made, not only in blubber, where it is likely to be involved in fat regulation, but also in seal lung, a tissue that does not express leptin in adult terrestrial mammals. This has opened up an intriguing new avenue of research into the role of leptin in lung physiology in diving animals.

I am currently investigating developmental regulation of enzymes involved in energy balance in humans, particularly glucose-6-phosphatase, which catalyses the final step in the conversion of glycogen to glucose. This is especially important for pre-term infants, which can be at risk of hypoglycaemia due to inadequate upregulation of this enzyme.

Publications

Maintained by: H Murphie.

The University of Dundee is a Scottish Registered Charity, No.SC015096

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Page last updated: Wednesday 23 April 2008 12:17 PM