Jens Bruning, MD

Dr. Jens Brüning is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne and Director at the Policlinic for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Preventive Medicine at the University Hospital in Cologne. His research focusses on elucidating the CNS-dependent regulation of energy and glucose metabolism. These studies revealed a previously unappreciated role for insulin action in the central nervous system (CNS) to control organismal glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivty. His group has defined distinct Agouti-related peptide (AgRP)-expressing neurons in the hypothalamus as critical mediators of insulin's metabolic actions, revealed the molecular mechanisms of insulin action in these neurons as well as their alterations in obesity. More recently, through the use of neurocircuitry mapping techniques his group defined the projections of these AgRP-neurons within the CNS, which govern insulin-dependent control of systemic insulin sensitivty via the regulation of autonomic innervation.