Childhood obesity rates are at their highest recorded level of 18.5%, putting approximately 14 million young children and adolescents at risk for poor health for the remainder of their life. Obesity not only impacts the quality of life, but also increases risk factors for life-threatening disease late life, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Understanding how maternal health and nutrition can impact development during all stages of early life can provide insights into the pathophysiology of childhood obesity.  It is our belief that studying these complicated, highly integrative pathways can result in discovering ways to improve the health of both mother and baby and interrupt this vicious cycle of obesity.

Dr. Kievit is the Interim Chief and an Associate Professor in the Division of Metabolic Health & Disease at ONPRC and his laboratory has several areas of interest with an overall focus on the impact of obesity and energy homeostasis on human health, as well as understanding how particular therapies can intervene. A diverse and highly motivated team investigates areas such as the impact of maternal obesity on the developing metabolic systems. These studies focus on changes within the central nervous system neurocircuitry and correlated changes in the periphery such as pancreas function, inflammation and gastrointestinal pathways.  We utilize a large variety of models and techniques in an attempt to study the full spectrum of the disease. This includes the use of both rodent and nonhuman primate models and techniques investigating whole body physiology (energy expenditure, food intake behavior) as well as changes at the organ level (immunohistochemistry, in-situ/RNAscope) and molecular/cellular level (electrophysiology, RNA-seq, islet ex-vivo perifusion analysis). We further engage in collaborative research with partners from both academic and industry, studying novel therapeutics to assist with weight loss or diabetes and have an extensive program that is geared towards understanding the reciprocal relationship between infectious disease and metabolism. There is an increased awareness that the immune system plays a critical role in various physiological processes beyond its classical pathogen control activity, including metabolic pathways such as body weight and glucose homeostasis. Our laboratory is interested in understanding how infectious agents like SARS-CoV-2 can impact metabolism.

Dr. Paul Kievit received his Msc in Toxicology from Leiden University in Leiden, his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and received postdoctoral training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School and OHSU.