I am the director of the Metabolic, Physiological, and Behavioral Phenotyping Core of the Michigan Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center (MMPC-Live) serving academia and industry. I am in charge of the daily research activities assuring scientific appropriateness in study design, execution consistency and quality, and the development of new phenotyping approaches and techniques for assessing whole-animal glucose and lipid homeostasis and related behavioral changes. I also serve as a mentor or PI on several postdoctoral research projects and a member of the Faculty Senate Research Advisory Committee and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. I have more than 30 years of experience in research using animal models of human diseases. I was trained in physiology and molecular genetics and have carried out many studies involving in vivo whole-animal phenotyping in rodents, from cardiovascular dysfunction to insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes. I was also trained as a surgeon in China and Japan, which has provided me with invaluable skills to successfully perform and train others in rodent surgeries.

In the past 18 years, the core has provided valuable services in research and education to more than 100 investigators on campus and elsewhere. Our work has supported more than 100 high-profile publications and numerous NIH-funded grants each year. In addition, the core has been serving as a consultation and training platform for faculties, students, or lab staff working in obesity and diabetes research. We have also provided services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, as well as other universities in the states and abroad. As a member of the current MMPC-Live consortium, the core will further focus on providing high-quality of phenotyping services to a broader research community and implementing new techniques and standardized methodologies in animal phenotyping.