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Lauren M. Sparks, PhD

Lauren M. Sparks, PhD

Associate Investigator at the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes.

Translational Research

Lauren Sparks

Overview

Dr. Lauren M. Sparks is an Investigator at the Translational Research Institute. Dr. Sparks pursues investigations on the topics of exercise response variation. Dr. Sparks is interested in understanding why some individuals do not respond favorably to exercise as a means of improving their metabolism and related co-morbidities. She aims to advance the field of exercise and type 2 diabetes and potentially shift the paradigm, allowing interventions to be targeted to those individuals most likely to benefit as well as identify novel approaches to treat those who do not. Dr. Sparks investigates the communication between muscle and fat tissue and how some individuals who are obese, but metabolically healthy, differ from those individuals who are obese and metabolically unhealthy. Prior to joining the TRI, Dr. Sparks was a postdoctoral scientist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands from 2009-2012. She focused on exercise and mitochondrial function in muscle and brown adipose tissue. From 2006-2009, Dr. Sparks was a postdoctoral fellow at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a focus on exercise and substrate metabolism in type 2 diabetes. Dr. Lauren Sparks was born in Patterson, Louisiana. She earned a B.S. in Zoology and a B.A. in Spanish in 2002 and continued on to earn her PhD in Molecular Biology in 2006 from Louisiana State University.

Articles

Skeletal muscle transcriptome response to a bout of endurance exercise in physically active and sedentary older adults.

American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism

2022

Increased liver fat associates with severe metabolic perturbations in low birth weight men

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENDOCRINOLOGY

2022

Skeletal muscle transcriptome response to a bout of endurance exercise in physically active and sedentary older adults

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-ENDOCRINOLOGY AND METABOLISM

2022

Intermuscular adipose tissue in metabolic disease

NATURE REVIEWS ENDOCRINOLOGY

2022

Mitochondrial Energetics in Skeletal Muscle Are Associated With Leg Power and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in the Study of Muscle, Mobility and Aging

JOURNALS OF GERONTOLOGY SERIES A-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

2022

Understanding heterogeneity of responses to, and optimizing clinical efficacy of, exercise training in older adults: NIH NIA Workshop summary

GEROSCIENCE

2022

Aerobic training increases mitochondrial respiratory capacity in human skeletal muscle stem cells from sedentary individuals

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-CELL PHYSIOLOGY

2022

A Novel Endocrine Role for the BAT-Released Lipokine 12,13-diHOME to Mediate Cardiac Function

CIRCULATION

2021

A Metabolomic Signature of Glucagon Action in Healthy Individuals With Overweight/Obesity

JOURNAL OF THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY

2021

Twenty-four hour assessments of substrate oxidation reveal differences in metabolic flexibility in type 2 diabetes that are improved with aerobic training

DIABETOLOGIA

2021

Education & Training

Education

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA