Kinesiology alumnus Aaron Kelly, Ph.D. (2004), associate professor of pediatrics and medicine in the U of M Department of Pediatrics,  and a colleague, Dr. Jennifer Abuzzahab, received a pilot grant in 2010 from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute to study severe obesity in children. That pilot grant paved the way for a multi-million NIH grant and resulted in the creation of a pediatric obesity research consortium among four major health organizations in Minnesota.

The CTSI-funded pilot project explored the potential of using a drug originally designed for adults with type 2 diabetes to help treat severe obesity in teenagers.  Adolescent participants who took the drug achieved clinically significant weight loss and demonstrated improvements in risk factors for diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Kelly’s doctoral adviser, Donald Dengel, Ph.D., Kinesiology professor and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Physiology, is working with Dr. Kelly on the grant measuring body composition in subjects. More information is available at this link.