Hyeyoung Nam, PhD has been selected as this year’s Named New Investigator for the UAB Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC). The center leadership selects from among funded pilot/feasibility recipients and then receives approval from the UAB NORC External Advisory Committee prior to formally making the appointment.

Dr. Nam is an Instructor in the Department of Urology, Heersink School of Medicine. She earned her PhD from the Department of Food Science & Human Nutrition at the University of Florida under the mentorship of Dr. Mitchell Knutson, where she researched the molecular mechanisms of hepatic iron transport and homeostasis. As a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Donald A. McClain in the Endocrinology Department at the University of Utah, her work focused on the synergistic inhibitory effects of hypoxia and iron deficiency on hepatic glucose metabolism. Dr. Nam joined Dr. Sunil Sudarshan’s laboratory at UAB as a Research Associate in 2015.

The pilot project Dr. Nam will work on in the next year is titled “The effects of fructose metabolism in renal cancer progression.” Her current research interest is to focus on the metabolic signatures of renal cancer. Dr. Nam’s research is to determine the cellular events that mediate these metabolic remodeling and their effects on renal cancer tumor progression. The NORC award will provide financial support for generating the preliminary data for a future R01 application. The mentored aspect of the program will provide valuable perspectives and input from experienced investigators to enhance the impact of the proposed research and better contextualize its significance to nutrition and obesity research.

The Named New Investigator is an honor created when UAB NORC received its designation as an NIDDK Center in 2001. The award is especially important for an early career scientist, providing $45,000 toward salary and protecting effort dedicated toward their pilot project.