Profile: Professor Mark Febbraio

NHMRC Principal Research Fellow Professor of Cell Biology

Head, Cellular and Molecular Metabolism Laboratory

Professor Febbraio is a Principal Research Fellow of the NHMRC, is the head of the Cellular and Molecular Metabolism Laboratory and Director of Basic Science in the Division of Metabolism and Obesity at the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Research Institute.

He currently oversees approximately 30 staff and students. His laboratory is focussed on understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms associated with lipid-induced inflammation and insulin resistance. 

He has made the vital discovery that muscles produce and secrete cytokines that have biological reactivity. This has lead to the very important discovery that IL-6 and other IL-6 family cytokines can be used as anti-obesogenic compounds and this has culminated in the publications in journals such as Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Cell Metabolism, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, Diabetes, Journal of Biological Chemistry and FASEB Journal. His work is consistently cited and despite the fact that he published his first paper in 1993 and is only 13 years post-PhD he has an H-index of 39 (39 papers with greater than 39 citations).

Professor Febbraio is regularly invited to overseas scientific symposia including Keystone Symposia and The American Diabetes Association Annual Scientific Meeting.  In March 2008 he gave the Plenary Lecture at The International Diabetes Federation Congress in Wellington NZ. He has been asked to examine several Ph. D theses within Australia and has been honoured to act as a Thesis Opponent at The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Awards / Honours

 

Award / Honour Date Awarded
A K McIntyre Prize for significant contributions to Australian Physiological Science   1999
New Investigator Award from The International Biochemistry of Exercise Society 2000
Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Post-Doctoral Prize at the Australian Society of Medical Research Congress 2002
Colin I Johnson Lectureship by the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia 2006

 

Memberships

  • Scientific Board of one Biotechnology Company - Vitagenes
  • Major shareholder in N-Gene
  • Editorial board of Diabetes, The American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology & Metabolism
  • Exercise Immunology Reviews and Journal of Applied Physiology
  • Elected to the Council of The Australian Diabetes Society (Honorary Treasurer) - 2004
  • Heads The Metabolism and Signaling Special Interest Group for the Australian Physiological Society
  • Served on NHMRC GAG panels for the past five years in the areas of Physiology, Cell Biology and Diabetes/Obesity.

Journal Reviews

  • Nature Medicine
  • Cell Metabolism
  • Diabetes
  • FASEB J
  • Journal of Biological Chemistry a
  • as well as numerous national and international granting bodies.

Selected Publications by Mark Febbraio

  • Muscle derived interleukin-6: mechanisms for activation and possible biological roles FASEB J. 16: 1335-1347, 2002. Febbraio MA, Pedersen BK. 
  • Intramuscular HSP72 and HO-1 mRNA are reduced in patients with type 2 diabetes: Evidence that insulin resistance is associated with a disturbed anti-oxidant defense mechanism. Diabetes 52: 2338-2345, 2003. Bruce CR, Carey AL, Hawley JA, Febbraio MA.
  • Skeletal myocytes are the source of Interleukin-6 mRNA expression and protein release during contraction: evidence of fiber type specificity. FASEB J 18: 992-994, 2004. Hiscock N, Chan MH, Bisucci T, Darby IA, Febbraio MA.
  • Interleukin-6 is a novel factor mediating glucose homeostasis in skeletal muscle contraction. Diabetes 53: 1643-1648, 2004. Febbraio MA., Hiscock N, Sacchetti M, Fischer CP, Pedersen BK.
  • Exosome-dependent trafficking of HSP70: a novel secretory pathway for cellular stress proteins J Biol Chem. 280: 23349-23355, 2005. Lancaster GI, Febbraio MA.
  • Ciliary neurotrophic factor prevents acute lipid-induced insulin resistance by attenuating ceramide accumulation and phosphorylation of JNK in peripheral tissues.  Endocrinology 147: 2077-2085, 2006. Watt MJ, Hevener A, Lancaster GI, Febbraio MA.
  • CNTF reverses obesity-induced insulin resistance by activating skeletal muscle AMPK. Nat. Med 12: 541-548, 2006 Watt MJ, Dzamko N, Thomas W, Rose-John S, Ernst M, Carling D, Kemp BE,  Febbraio MA. Steinberg GR.
  • Interleukin-6 increases insulin-stimulated glucose disposal in humans and glucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation in vitro via AMP-activated protein kinase. Diabetes 55: 2688-2697, 2006. Carey AL, Steinberg GR, Macaulay SL, Thomas WJ, Holmes AG, Ramm G, Prelovsek O, Hohnen-Behrens C, Watt MJ, James DE, Kemp BE, Petersen BK, Febbraio MA.
  • Tumor necrosis factor-α induced skeletal muscle insulin resistance involves the suppression of AMP-kinase signaling. Cell Metab 4: 465-474, 2006. Steinberg GR, Michell BJ, van Denderen B, Watt MJ, Fam BC,  Andrikopoulos S, Gorgun CZ, Proietto J, Carling D, Hotamisligil, GS, Febbraio MA, Kay, TW, Kemp BE.
  • gp130 receptor ligands: potential therapeutic targets in obesity J. Clin Invest. 117:  841-849, 2007. Febbraio MA.
  • Macrophage PPARγ is required for normal skeletal muscle and hepatic insulin sensitivity and full antidiabetic effects of TZDs. J Clin Invest 117: 1658-1669, 2007. Hevener AL, Olefsky J, Reichart D, Nguyen A-K, Bandyopadyhay G, Leung H-Y, Watt MJ, Benner C, Febbraio MA, Folian B, Subramaniam S, Gonzalez FJ, Glass GK, Ricote M.
  • It’s what you do with the fat that matters! Nat. Med. 13: 1137-1138, 2007. Bruce CR, Febbraio MA. HSP72 protects against obesity-induced insulin resistance. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105: 1739-1744, 2008. Chung J, Nguyen A-K, Henstridge DC, Holmes AG, Chan MHS, Mesa JL, Lancaster GI, Southgate RJ, Bruce CR, Duffy S, Vigh L, Horvath I, Mestril R, Watt MJ, Hooper PD, Kingwell BA, Hevener A, Febbraio MA.
  • Muscle as an endocrine organ – focus on muscle-derived IL-6. Physiol. Rev. In Press. Pedersen BK, Febbraio MA.