The National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases

The mechanisms regulating human body weight are extraordinarily complex, and the ongoing obesity epidemic makes it imperative that we improve our understanding of these processes. A fundamental guiding principle is that changes of body weight result from an imbalance between the energy derived from food and the energy expended to maintain life and perform work. This energy balance concept has been the cornerstone of nutrition research for more than a century and it continues to provide the scaffold for our understanding of body weight regulation. An updated and more specific version of the energy balance concept states that changes of body fat and lean mass are related to imbalances between the intake, oxidation, and inter-conversion of carbohydrate, fat, and protein.

My laboratory investigates mammalian metabolism, body weight regulation and the physiological dysregulation that occurs in diseases such as obesity, diabetes, anorexia and cachexia. We perform experiments in both humans and rodents to better understand the complex mechanisms regulating macronutrient balance, body composition, and energy expenditure. A unique aspect of our laboratory involves the development of mathematical models to quantitatively describe, explain, integrate, and predict experimental results. We have developed several mathematical models, ranging from a single equation that describes the proportion of a body weight change resulting from the gain or loss of lean body mass, to a realistic computational model representing the dynamics of whole body macronutrient metabolism, body composition change, and the participating metabolic fluxes.

1. Hall KD, Baracos VE Computational modeling of cancer cachexia. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care(11): 214-21, 2008. [Full Text/Abstract]

2. Jordan PN, Hall KD Dynamic coordination of macronutrient balance during infant growth: insights from a mathematical model. Am J Clin Nutr(87): 692-703, 2008. [Full Text/Abstract]

3. Hall KD, Hallgreen CE Increasing weight loss attenuates the preferential loss of visceral compared with subcutaneous fat: a predicted result of an allometric model. Int J Obes (Lond), 2008. [Full Text/Abstract]

4. Chow CC, Hall KD The dynamics of human body weight change. PLoS Comput Biol(4): e1000045, 2008. [Full Text/Abstract]

5. Hall KD What is the required energy deficit per unit weight loss? Int J Obes (Lond)(32): 573-6, 2008. [Full Text/Abstract]

6. Hallgreen CE, Hall KD Allometric relationship between changes of visceral fat and total fat mass. Int J Obes (Lond), 2007. [Full Text/Abstract]

7. Hall KD Body fat and fat-free mass inter-relationships: Forbes''s theory revisited. Br J Nutr(97): 1059-63, 2007. [Full Text/Abstract]

8. Hall KD, Bain HL, Chow CC How adaptations of substrate utilization regulate body composition. Int J Obes (Lond)(31): 1378-1383, 2007. [Full Text/Abstract]

9. Hall KD. Computational model of in vivo human energy metabolism during semi-starvation and re-feeding. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab, 2006. [Full Text/Abstract]

10. Glass L, Nagai Y, Hall K, Talajic M, Nattel S. Predicting the entrainment of reentrant cardiac waves using phase resetting curves. Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys(65): 021908, 2002. [Full Text/Abstract]

11. Hall K, Christini DJ. Restricted feedback control of one-dimensional maps. Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys(63): 046204, 2001. [Full Text/Abstract]

12. Endresen LP, Hall K, Hoye JS, Myrheim J. A theory for the membrane potential of living cells. Eur Biophys J(29): 90-103, 2000. [Full Text/Abstract]

13. Hall K and Glass L How to tell a target from a spiral: the two probe problem. Phys Rev Lett(82): 5164-7, 1999. [Full Text/Abstract]

14. Hall K, Glass L. Locating ectopic foci. J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol(10): 387-98, 1999. [Full Text/Abstract]

15. Hall K, Christini DJ, Tremblay M, Collins JJ, Glass L, Billette J. Dynamic control of cardiac alternans Phys Rev Lett(78): 4518-21, 1997. [Full Text/Abstract]

16. Amellal F, Hall K, Glass L, Billette J. Alternation of atrioventricular nodal conduction time during atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia: are dual pathways necessary? J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol(7): 943-51, 1996. [Full Text/Abstract]