Scripps Research scientist Ilia Droujinine receives over $3 million to reveal the body's interorgan networks The awards from the NIDDK and the LLHF will let Droujinine uncover how interorgan communication goes awry in metabolic disease and aging, paving the way for new treatments.
September 25, 2024
LA JOLLA, CA Ilia Droujinine, PhD, assistant professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research, has received $3.2 million in funding over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to study metabolic disorders and potentially uncover novel therapeutics.
Droujinine focuses on interorgan communication, by which the organs in our body work together to coordinate everyday functions like aging, nutrient uptake, cell division and more to maintain a healthy, stable state, called homeostasis. But when faulty connections arise, disorders such as obesity or diabetes can develop and lead to severe complications.
NIDDK, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), supports research into various diseases considered among the most chronic, costly, and consequential for patients. The NIDDK grant provides Droujinine with support to research interorgan communication in homeostasis and obesity the latter a strong factor in many of the disorders that NIDDK supports research into, such as gastrointestinal and fatty liver diseases.
Obesity and diabetes affect millions of people in the U.S. and expanding our understanding of how our body's organs communicate to respond to these health factors is critical if we are to meaningfully address these major health crises. Our lab will use our newly developed proteomic technologies to determine the secreted proteins that mediate this communication, the stimuli that they respond to, and the biological processes that they affect in distal tissues, Droujinine says.
Droujinine also received an award from the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation (LLHF), a nonprofit funded through a bequest from Larry L. Hillblom, businessman and co-founder of DHL Worldwide Express. The LLHF grants awards supporting medical research throughout California, with a particular focus on chronic and degenerative diseases associated with aging. The LLHF Start-up award will provide Droujinine's lab with $360,000 in funding during its three-year term, starting July 2025, for research into the regulation of gut interorgan communication proteins.
These two awards will provide vital support in the research of interorgan communications to further identify avenues of combating these metabolic diseases and similar age-related conditions. I am truly grateful to the NIDDK and LLHF for supporting high-risk, but high-reward science conducted by a junior faculty lab. This makes a world of difference to the development of our lab, and hopefully, in the future, to advancing our understanding of metabolic disease mechanisms, says Droujinine.
Droujinine has been a pioneer in understanding the body's interorgan communication networks. His lab focuses on researching these networks, how they help the body achieve homeostasis, how metabolic diseases can change these networks, and how altered networks can lead to disease development. He and his lab have already developed a critical platform that uncovers how secreted proteins which are produced by one organ and then travel through the blood to another organ communicate during various biological and physiological processes, as well as how aging impacts these processes. This research has the potential to inform future strategies of treating metabolic disease.
Molecular and Cellular Biology Institute News
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
Scripps Research scientist Ilia Droujinine receives over $3 million to reveal the body's interorgan networks The awards from the NIDDK and the LLHF will let Droujinine uncover how interorgan communication goes awry in metabolic disease and aging, paving the way for new treatments. 
