Journal of Clinical Epigenetics Open Access

Kate J. Claycombe

Biography

Dr. Claycombe has a unique combination of training in obesity, adipose tissue biology, epigenetics, and nutritional immunology, which she has applied to novel experiments using cell culture and animal obesity models. Focusing on the functions of specific adipose tissue cell types that are important in obesity-associated increases in inflammatory factors and adipose tissue epigenetic regulation related to adipose tissue growth, Dr. Claycombe?s highly innovative research constitutes a new approach to the study of the metabolic basis for obesity-driven disease, as it addresses prospective anti-obesity/anti-hypertrophic effects of dietary nutrients in reducing both adipose stem cell differentiation (into adipocytes) and lipid accumulation in mature (differentiated) adipocytes. Expanding on these achievements in her current position, she has discovered physiological and epigenetic mechanisms underlying maternal and postnatal diet-induced obesity of offspring and associated metabolic dysfunctions. Her research has enhanced understanding of the obesity-inflammation axis affecting chronic disease and has stimulated research in this area by other investigators. Dr. Claycombe is internationally recognized for her work in the area of obesity, adipose tissue biology and adipose tissue inflammation. She has published 41 peer reviewed journal articles, 2 book chapters and 6 review articles. A Google Scholar citation data base analysis showed that her work has been cited 1813 times with an h index of 24. To date, fifteen of her articles have been cited over 50 times. She has published in high impact journals including PNAS, J Biol Chem (2 articles), Circulation, Am J Physiol (3 articles), Physiol Genomics (2 articles), J Nutr (6 articles), Atherosclerosis, Biochem J (3 articles), J Nutr Biochem, and Obes Res. Dr. Claycombe?s contributions have been recognized at the national level by invitation to the Steering Committee of the American Society of Nutrition Nutritional Immunology Research Interest Section; and at the international level by invitations to serve on the Program Committee of the Obesity Society, as Chair of the Obesity Society Cell and Molecular Track, as Chair and Co-Chair at several national meetings of Experimental Biology and the Obesity Society, and on the Expert Panel for the Inflammation and Obesity of the FASEB/Life Science Research Office. She served on the ?Inflammation and Nutritional Science for Programs/Policies and Interpretation of Research Evidence (INSPIRE) Working Group for NIH. She serves on the Institute of Medicine Basic Science Agenda Subcommittee and chairs the Obesity Society?s Basic Science Section. She has served on several editorial boards of national and international journals including Physiological Genomics, Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, and International Scholarly Research Network Nutrition Journal and is a guest editor of Mediators of Inflammation. Dr. Claycombe has been invited to numerous national and international meetings to speak about her research and received several awards for her contributions to the area of obesity and metabolic disorders. Within two years of her appointment as ARS scientist, Dr. Claycombe was appointed to Lead Scientist of the ?Biology of Obesity Prevention? project and team. As a Lead Scientist, she directed her team to achieve significant research goals including successful completion of a CRIS project, writing multiple manuscripts, establishing collaborations with scientists at local (University of North Dakota), national (Tufts, Iowa State, Texas Tech), and international (Chongqing University and Third Military Medical School, China) Universities.