UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 32, Page 12
May 18, 1995
Joan Burnside receives '95-'96 Fulbright Award

     Joan Burnside, associate professor of animal science and
agricultural biochemistry, has been awarded a 1995-96 Fulbright grant
to carry out research on growth hormone (GH) at the Faculte de
Medecine Necker-Enfants Malades, a research hospital in Paris.
     Burnside will be working with the hospital's American director of
molecular endocrinology, Paul Kelly.
     According to Burnside, GH has many effects on growth and
metabolism, and it also affects protein and lipid metabolism in liver,
muscle and fat. But little is known about the molecular mechanism of
GH action or the genes that enact it.
     At the University, Burnside has been carrying out molecular
studies of GH with poultry, working in conjunction with physiologist
Larry Cogburn, associate professor in the department. They have
treated poultry with GH and are carrying out molecular studies on its
effects on dwarf and normal-sized chickens.
     She also works with postdoctoral fellow Sunita Agarwal, and their
research has identified four new genes which are regulated by growth
hormones.
     During her sabbatical year abroad, Burnside proposes to work with
mammals, identifying genes and the mechanisms by which actions of GH
are mediated in the cell.
     According to Burnside, GH action has long-term implications for
medical research and agricultural development and safety in such areas
as milk output, meat quality and feed efficiency. GH also is used in
the treatment of several human disorders.
     Burnside received a bachelor's degree in zoology from the
University of Maryland, a master's degree in biochemistry from the
University of Massachusetts and a doctorate in biochemistry from
Dartmouth Medical School. She joined the Delaware faculty in 1989 from
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School, where
she was a research associate in the division of molecular genetics.
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure