Dr. Arend Bonen
Professor
Canadian Research Chair
Email: abonen@uoguelph.ca
Office: ANNU 330
Ext: 53028
Lab: ANNU 318/19
Ext: 56654
Profile | Education | Research | Publications | Teaching | Grad Students | Links |
Profile
As a competitive swimmer in my teenage years and early twenties I developed an interest in understanding muscle physiology and metabolism. This prompted me to pursue a PhD in exercise physiology at the University of Illinois. Shortly after completing this degree I returned to Canada to take up a faculty position (1973-1991) at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Quite quickly I realized that fundamental principles of muscle energetics, as these operate during exercise, could possibly be applied to examining biochemical problems in selected diseases. Specifically, it appeared to me that the inability to clear glucose from the blood (which is stream the key problem in type 2 diabetes), was probably due in large part to a defect in skeletal muscleÕs ability to take up glucose. This idea was initially quite controversial. However, over the years there has been widespread acceptance of this concept . During my years at the University of Waterloo (1991-2003) I began to probe the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating muscle glucose transport. In addition, my group has also introduced fundamental new understandings as to how fatty acids enter the cell, by a series binding proteins that can migrate to the cell membrane. This was also very controversial when first introduced, but this is now increasingly accepted. It now also appears that anomalies in this process of fatty acid uptake contribute directly to the problem of impaired glucose uptake by the muscle cell in type 2 diabetics. This work is continuing at the University of Guelph, where in 2003 I took up a position as a tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Metabolism and Health
I am a member of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and the American Physiologic Society.
My research program is supported by grants from NSERC, CIHR (2), and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.
Additional information can be obtained from my website (uoguelph.ca/hbns/Bonen/Bonen.htm).
Education
B.A. - Western
M.Sc. - Illinois
Ph.D. - Illinois
Research
Our primary interest is to examine substrate utilization by heart and skeletal muscle, and factors that regulate such utilization. For these purposes we use a variety of animal models, and experiments are conducted using concomitantly physiologic, biochemical and molecular approaches. Studies in human muscle and adipose tissue are also being performed. Post-doctoral fellows and students can work in diverse areas of substrate metabolism.
Selected Publications
Bonen, A., A. Chabowski, J.J.F.P. Luiken, J.F.C. Glatz. Mechanisms and Regulation of Protein-mediated Cellular Fatty Acid Uptake: Molecular, Biochemical and Physiologic Evidence. Invited paper Physiology (Bethesda) 22:15-29, 2007
Alkhateeb, H. A. Chabowski, J.F.C Glatz, J.J. F. P. Luiken and A. Bonen. Two phases of palmitate-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle: impaired GLUT4 translocation is followed by a reduced GLUT4 intrinsic activity. Am J. Physiol. Endocrinol Metab . 293:E783-E793, 2007
Enoke, T, Y. Yoshida, J. Lally, H. Hatta and A. Bonen. Testosterone increases lactate transport, monocarboxylate transporter (MCT1) and MCT4 in rat skeletal muscle. J. Physiol 577:433-443, 2006
Campbell, S.E., N.N. Tandon, G. Woldegiorgis, J.J.F.P. Luiken, J.F.C. Glatz, A. Bonen. A novel function for FAT/CD36: involvement in long chain fatty acid transfer into the mitochondria. J. Biol. Chem 279:36325-36341, 2004.
Bonen, A., J.J.F.P. Luiken, Y. Arumugam, J.F.C. Glatz, N.N. Tandon. Acute regulation of fatty acid uptake involves the translocation of fatty acid translocase. J. Biol. Chem. 275:14501-14508, 2000 (this paper was awarded 1st prize for Research Excellence, American Physiological Society, 2001, at the Experimental Biology 2000 meetings).
Grad Students
S. Jain (PhD student)
J. Lally (PhD student)
J. McFarlan (PhD student)
A. Piattelli (MSc student)