Douglas Befroy, PhD

Associate Research Scientist of Diagnostic Radiology, Department of Internal Medicine - Section of Endocrinology

Contact

Address:
Yale University, School of Medicine
Magnetic Resonance Research Center
TAC, N142, 300 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8043
United States

Email: douglas.befroy@yale.edu
Telephone: (203) 737-1124
Fax: (203) 785-6643

Education

BA, Chemistry, University of Oxford, 1996

MA, Chemistry, University of Oxford, 1998

D.Phil., Cardiovascular Physiology, University of Oxford, 2000

Research Interests

My research focuses on the development of novel Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) techniques to investigate muscle and liver metabolism in vivo. MRS is a unique tool because it enables a variety of parameters of metabolism to be investigated, including metabolite concentrations, cellular oxygenation, and the rates of different metabolic reactions. At present, I am interested in the regulation of muscle mitochondrial function versus capacity, and how this is affected by conditions known to modulate metabolism - e.g., endurance training, aging, and diabetes. To investigate this effectively requires the development of robust MRS biomarkers of mitochondrial metabolism, which is the current target of my research.

Selected Publications

1. DE Befroy, KF Petersen, S Dufour, GF Mason, DL Rothman and GI Shulman. Increased Substrate Oxidation and Mitochondrial Uncoupling in Skeletal Muscle of Endurance Trained Individuals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:16701-16706, 2008. PMID: 18936488.
2. DE Befroy, CS Choi, R Codella, S Kim, RM Reznick, YJ Hwang, ZX Liu, HY Lee, A Distefano, VT Samuel, D Zhang, GW Cline, C Handschin, J Lin, KF Petersen, BM Spiegelman, GI Shulman. Paradoxical Effects of Increased Expression of PGC-1 on Muscle Mitochondrial Function and Insulin Stimulated Muscle Glucose Metabolism. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. in press, 2008.
3. DE Befroy, KF Petersen, S Dufour, GF Mason, RA de Graaf, DL Rothman and GI Shulman. Impaired Mitochondrial Substrate Oxidation in Muscle of Insulin-Resistant Offspring of Type 2 Diabetic Patients. Diabetes 56:1376-1381, 2007. PMID: 17287462
4. KF Petersen, D Befroy, S Dufour, J Dzuira, C Ariyan, DL Rothman, L DiPietro, GW Cline and GI Shulman. Mitochondrial dysfunction in the elderly: possible role in insulin resistance. Science. 300:1140-1142, 2003. PMID: 12750520
5. KF Petersen, S Dufour, D Befroy, Rina Reyes and GI Shulman. Impaired mitochondrial activity in insulin-resistant offspring of Type 2 diabetics. N. Engl. J. Med. 350: 664-671, 2004. PMID: 14960743
6. DM Wigmore, DE Befroy, IR Lanza, JA Kent-Braun. Contraction frequency modulates muscle fatigue and intracellular oxygenation during incremental contractions in humans. App Phys Nutr Metab, 3: 915-921, 2008., PMID: 18923566
7. IR Lanza, DE Befroy and JA Kent-Braun. Age-related changes in ATP-producing pathways in human skeletal muscle in-vivo. J. Appl. Phys. 99: 1736-1744, 2005. PMID: 16002769
8. IR Lanza, DM Wigmore, DE Befroy and JA Kent-Braun. In-vivo ATP Production during free-flow and ischemic muscle contractions in humans. J Physiol. 577:353-367, 2006. PMID: 16945975
9. KF Petersen, S Dufour, D Befroy, M Lehrke, RE Hendler and GI Shulman. Reversal of nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis, hepatic insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia by moderate weight reduction in patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes. 54: 603-8, 2005. PMID: 15734833
10. KF Petersen, S Dufour, Jing Feng, D Befroy, J Dziura, CD Man, C Cobelli and GI Shulman. Increased Prevalence of Insulin Resistance and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Asian Indian Men. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A. 103:18273-18277, 2006. PMID: 17114290

For a further list of Befroy's publications, please see PubMed.