26336-Ren, Hongxia

Hongxia Ren, PhD

Associate Professor of Pediatrics

Assistant Professor of Stark Neuroscience Research Institute

Phone
(317) 274-1567
Address
MS 2049
PENB
IN
Indianapolis, IN
PubMed:

Bio

Hongxia Ren, PhD. is an Associate Professor and a member of the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute, the Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases and the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatrics Research at Indiana University School of Medicine. 

Dr. Ren graduated with B.S. degree in biology from Fudan University, Shanghai, China. She received her doctoral degree from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Her dissertation is titled "Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling during myogenesis". She completed her postdoctoral training with Dr. Accili with focus on diabetes and obesity research at the Diabetes Research Center (DRC) in Columbia University, New York, NY. Dr. Ren joined the faculty rank as an Assistant Professor at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2016. 

In 2016, Dr. Ren joined Indiana University School of Medicine with funding from a pretigious NIH K99/R00 pathway to independence award. In 2020, she was awarded an R01 from the National Institutes of Health/NIDDK to pursue her studies of metabolic fundtion of Gpr17 in the gasstrointestinal tract. 

As an independent investigator, Dr. Ren has received multiple career awards, including Showalter Scholar Award, and Outstanding Young Investigator and Early Career Development Awards from CSCTR, Early Investigators Award from Endocrine Society, and IU Trustees Teaching Award. Dr. Ren has provided professional services as a member on NIH study sections and a member (ECR) of the Journal of Biological Chemistry editorial board.

Key Publications

Yan S, Conley JM, Reilly AM, Stull ND, Abhyankar SD, Ericsson AC, Kono T, Molosh AI, Kubal CA, Evans-Molina C, Ren H. Intestinal Gpr17 deficiency improves glucose metabolism by promoting GLP-1 secretion. Cell Reports 2022 https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(21)01679-X

Conley JM, Sun H, Ayers KL, Zhu H, Chen R, Shen M, Hall MD, Ren H. Human GPR17 missense variants identified in metabolic disease patients have distinct downstream signaling profiles. JBC 2021 https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(21)00681-5/fulltext

Reilly AM, Yan S, Conley JM, Bone RN, Stull ND, Horan DJ, Robling AG, Ericsson AC, Evans-Molina C, Ren H. High-fat diet catalyzes progression to diabetes in mice with selective impairment of insulin action in Glut4-expressing tissues. JBC 2021 https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(21)01240-0/fulltext

Reilly AM, Tsai AP, Lin PB, Ericsson AC, Oblak AL, Ren H. Metabolic Defects Caused by High-Fat Diet Modify Disease Risk through Inflammatory and Amyloidogenic Pathways in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease. Nutrients 2020;12(10):2977 PMID: 33003412 Open Access https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/10/2977

Reilly AM, Zhou S, Panigrahi S, Yan S, Conley JM, Sheets PL, Wardlaw SL, Ren H. Gpr17-deficiency in POMC neurons ameliorates the metabolic derangements caused by long-term high fat diet feeding. Nutrition and Diabetes. 2019 Oct; 9(1): 29-40 (*corresponding author) PMID: 31611548 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41387-019-0096-7

Ren H, Vieira-de-Abreu A, Yan S, Reilly AM, Chan O, Accili D. Altered central nutrient sensing in mice lacking insulin receptors in Glut4-expressing neurons. Endocrinology. 2019 Sep; 160(9):2038-2048 (*Lead corresponding author) PMID: 31199472 https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/160/9/2038/5518335

Glicksberg BS, Amadori L, Akers NK, Sukhavasi K, Franzén O, Li L, Belbin GM, Akers KL, Shameer K, Badgeley MA, Johnson KW, Readhead B, Darrow BJ, Kenny EE, Betsholtz C, Ermel R, Skogsberg J, Ruusalepp A, Schadt EE, Dudley JT, Ren H, Kovacic JC, Giannareli C, Li SD, Björkegren JLM, Chen R. Integrative analysis of loss-of-function variants in clinical and genomic data reveals novel genes associated with cardiovascular traits. BMC Medical Genomics 2019 Jul;12(Suppl 6):108-123. PMID: 31345219

Ren H*, Cook JR, Kon N, Accili D*. Gpr17 in AgRP neurons regulates feeding and sensitivity to insulin and leptin. Diabetes. 2015 Nov;64(11):3670-9 (Epub 2015 Jul 15). (* Co-corresponding author) https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article/64/11/3670/40259/Gpr17-in-AgRP-Neurons-Regulates-Feeding-and

Ren H, Orozco IJ, Su Y, Suyama S, Gutiérrez-Juárez R, Horvath TL, Wardlaw SL, Plum L, Arancio O, Accili D  FoxO1 Target Gpr17 Activates AgRP Neurons to Regulate Food Intake. Cell. 2012 Jun;149(6):1314-1326.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867412005776

Ren H, Lu TY, McGraw TE, Accili D. Anorexia and impaired glucose metabolism in mice with hypothalamic ablation of Glut4 neurons. Diabetes 2015 Feb;64(2):405-17.

Ren H, Yan S, Zhang B, Lu TY, Arancio O, Accili D. Glut4 expression defines an insulin-sensitive hypothalamic neuronal population. Molecular Metabolism 2014 Apr; 3(4): 452-459

Ren H, Plum-Morschel L, Gutierrez-Juarez R,  Lu TY, Kim-Muller KY, Heinrich G, Wardlaw S, Silver R, Accili D. Blunted Re-feeding Response And Increased Locomotor Activity In Mice Lacking FoxO1 In Synapsin-Cre-Expressing Neurons. Diabetes 2013 Oct;62(10):3373-83  (Co-first author)

Lin HV, Ren H, Samuel VT, Lee HY, Lu TY, Shulman GI, Accili D  Diabetes in mice with selective impairment of insulin action in Glut4-expressing tissues. Diabetes 2011 Mar; 60(3):700-709. (Co-first author)

Ren H, Accili D, and Duan C Hypoxia converts the myogenic action of insulin-like growth factors into mitogenic action by differentially regulating multiple signaling pathways. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2010 Mar 30; 107(13):5857-5862.

Ren H, Yin P, and Duan C IGFBP-5 regulates muscle cell differentiation by binding to IGF-II and switching on the IGF-II auto-regulation loop. J Cell Biol 2008 Sep 8; 182(5): 979-991. (Co-first author)

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