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Using Hibernating Marmots to Discover New Facts About Obesity
When he was 14, Greg worked at the Palo Alto Jr. Museum and took care of the birds of prey (like eagles, hawks, falcons). Studying birds of prey was a hobby of his. He even became a falconer (trainer of falcons) and practiced falconry for a while. Greg also had the opportunity to study many other different animals while working for the museum, which got him interested in the subject of science. Getting His Feet Wet in ScienceGreg chose to study science because it was a subject area that was fairly objective and people couldn’t question your answer. Not to mention, it was more fun than math. Greg also enjoyed running experiments and testing his ideas. He had excellent science teachers throughout high school. He always knew he would go to college and was even president of his high school’s Future Teacher’s Club. The best part of high school was when he was given an opportunity to work with a professor in biology at the University of California, at Berkeley. There he worked on the lipid properties of bird eggs and helped to do some of the research that demonstrated the pesticides were causing the thinning of the shells of bird eggs, particularly the peregrine falcon. During his senior year in high school, Greg actually got a paper published with the professor from Berkeley. While in the UC Berkeley library one summer, Greg met a chemistry professor who recruited him to go to Cornell University in New York. Greg applied to Cornell and was accepted. He completed his Biology degree in 1973. Deciding on a CareerBoth in high school and in college, Greg enjoyed learning about how biological systems work. He wanted to know more about how humans interact with our environment and how animals survive in different environments. That led him to study physiology. Greg wanted to be a good teacher and researcher, so he decided that an academic career was his best option. That meant graduate school and a PhD degree. In trying to decide where to go to school, it was Dr. Paul Ehrlich who recruited him to Stanford University. Greg moved back to California, attended Stanford, and received his PhD degree in 1978. Greg feels that it was only through hard work and perseverance that he has been able to achieve his goals. It also helped a great deal that he had much support from his family and many of his teachers. Dr. Florant taught at Swarthmore College (10 years) and Temple University (5 years) before accepting his current job in the Department of Biology at the Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. He is currently a Professor there. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as having both undergraduate and graduate students help out in the lab doing research. He also serves on various university committees and helps with out-reach programs in his community and nationwide. Hibernation and ObesityDr. Florant’s research focuses on energy metabolism in animals. He is investigating how animals store fat and then use that fat to survive under environmentally harsh conditions, specifically winter hibernation. Animals that hibernate, such as the marmots Dr. Florant studies, under go torpor bouts where body temperature drops very close to air temperature which can be near zero at times. But the animals re-warm from time to time but do not eat. They survive on the fat that they have stored in their body. He hopes that by studying this question he may someday discover new mechanisms that will help scientists understand obesity in humans and how to treat it.
Away From Work
Dr. Florant also does volunteer work as much as he can, particularly in elementary schools. Advice to Undergraduate StudentsStudy hard and find a good mentor. Make sure this is FUN. If it’s not fun, then try another field. Realize that you have good ideas and apply them. Students need to realize that their ideas are important. Find the area of science that interests you the most: that’s the one that you DON’T mind getting up at 6am to check whether the experiment worked or not!
Recent Publications
2. Cordain, L., B.A. Watkins, G.L. Florant, M. Kehler, L. Rogers, and Y. Li. Fatty acid analysis of wild ruminant tissues: Evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related chronic disease tissues. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 556: 181-191, 2002. 3. Florant, G.L., V.L. Hill, and M. D. Ogilvie. Circadian rhythms of body temperature in laboratory and field marmots (Marmota flaviventris). In: Life in the Cold, edited byG. Heldmaier and M. Klingenspor. Berlin: Springer, 2000, pp.223-233. 4. Pulawa, L.K., and G.L. Florant. The effects of caloric restriction on the body composition and hibernation of the golden-mantled ground squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis). Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 73: 538-546, 2000. 5. Florant, G.L. Lipid metabolism in hibernators: The importance of essential fatty acids. Amer. Zool. 38: 331-341, 1999. 6. Wang, P., P.D. Walter, B.G. Bhat, G.L. Florant, and R.A. Coleman. Seasonal changes in enzymes of lipogenesis and triacylglycerol synthesis in the golden-mantle ground squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis). Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 118B (2): 261-267, 1997. 7. Thorpe, C.R., P.K. Ram, and G.L. Florant. Diet alters metabolic rate in the yellow-bellied marmot during hibernation. Physiol. Zool. 67(5):1213-1229, 1994. 8. Florant, G.L., L. Hester, S. Ameenuddin, and D.A. Rintoul. The effect of a low essential fatty acid diet on hibernation in marmots. Am. J. Physiol. 264 (Reg. Integ. Comp. Physiol. 33): R747-R753, 1993. 9. Wilson, B.E., S. Deeb,
and G.L. Florant. Seasonal changes in hormone-sensitive and lipoprotein
lipase mRNA concentrations in marmot white adipose tissue.
Am. J. Physiol. 262 (Reg. Integ. Comp. Physiol. 37):
R177-R181, 1992. |
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