Andrew Whittle

I work to understand how thermogenesis in adipose tissue is altered by changes in diet and metabolic health. In the long term I aim to find ways to specifically exploit thermogenic mechanisms to better treat diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and anorexia. 

I am currently identifying and characterizing the neuronal circuits that respond to metabolic and dietary changes to elicit more or less thermogenesis. At the same time I examine the impact of these changes on the metabolic health of cells, tissues and whole organisms. To achieve this I combine the latest nueuromodulatory techniques such as opto- and chemogenetics with my extensive experience performing detailed in vivo and in vitro metabolic phenotyping.

My SNI project will utilize nano-scale electrode arrays to measure the sympathetic nervous system activity in Brown Adipose Tissue in real-time, following modulation of the activity of specific neurons.