Eduardo A. Nillni
Eduardo A. Nillni is an American scientist born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His specialty is in endocrinology and cell biology. Dr. Nillni is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry at Brown University. He has been a member of the Brown faculty since 1989. He was an executive member of the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry Ph.D. graduate program and also a member of the Ph.D. and MD/Ph.D. admission committees. He was on the editorial board of various prestigious scientific journals and has been a reviewer for nineteen journals including Nature, Cell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Journal of Clinical Investigation. He was also a member of several national and international review committees including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health Study Sections for more than 20 years.
Contents Education Academic career Personal life Selected references
Education
Nillni graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1976 in Biological Sciences. He subsequently moved to Israel, where he received a Ph.D. degree in 1982 from the Hadassah Medical School, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he studied Parasitic Protozoa's Biochemistry. After his graduation, he conducted post-doctoral fellowship training in membrane biology of parasitic protozoa at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, USA. He then became a member of the faculty in 1984. He subsequently shifted his academic interest to Neuroendocrinology and Cell Biology when he moved to Brown University in 1989. Since then, he has studied the role of neuropeptide hormones, including pro-thyrotropin releasing hormone (pro-TRH) and proopiomelanocortin (POMC). He also studied nutrient sensors in the hypothalamus interacting with the adipose hormone leptin and other vital components of the regulatory system controlling food intake energy homeostasis.
Early life
Eduardo A. Nillni was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 11, 1949. His parents Salomon Nillni and Rosa Bochoeyer were the family’s first generation of European Jews in Argentina. His maternal grandparents are of Romania and Poland ancestry. And, his paternal grandparents are of Ukraine and Belarus ancestry. His great paternal grandfather emigrated from Buenos Aires to the USA in 1929 and arrived at Ellis Island, New York, to join one of his brothers. He was recorded in the State Department immigration document as Abraham Neshny.
Academic accomplishments
Dr. Nillni had made significant contributions in cell biology and on neuropeptide hormones controlling energy balance. Cell Biology: Working with pro-thyrotropin (pro-TRH) releasing hormone polypeptide, in 1982 was the first to demonstrate the posttranslational processing of this prohormone and its secretion to the regulated secretory pathway. In the same line of studies, he showed that posttranslational processing of pro-TRH begins in the Trans Golgi region, an essential mechanism for the differential secretion of peptide hormones outside the cell. Endocrinology: His laboratory demonstrated that the biosynthesis of neuropeptide hormones derived from their pro-hormone precursor is nutritionally regulated. These nutritional changes affect the activity of the Pro-hormone Convertases 1 and 2 (PC1 And PC2) essential in the maturation of all pro-hormones. Most of his studies focused on pro-Thyrotropin Releasing Hormone (pro-TRH) and pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) polypeptides directly involved in energy homeostasis. He has described how different hormones and neurotransmitters, including leptin, α-MSH, Norepinephrine (NE), and thyroid hormone regulate pro-TRH at transcriptional, protein biosynthesis, and secretion levels in the hypothalamus. The universal finding derived from these studies demonstrated that besides affecting TRH transcription and pro-TRH biosynthesis, leptin, NE, α-MSH, and thyroid hormone also affect the maturation of PC1 and PC2. This tightly regulated mechanism to produce biologically active peptides turns out to be true for most peptide hormones produced in the hypothalamus. A breakthrough study from his laboratory in leptin biology was that aside from regulating peptide hormone expression, leptin also controls pro-hormone processing by regulating PC1 and PC2. This novel concept introduced in 2004 to the obesity field provided the basis for many studies conducted today in other laboratories. In collaboration with his colleagues at Harvard University, his laboratory demonstrated for the first time that leptin regulates the TRH and POMC gene expression through activation of the STAT3 signaling pathway. His laboratory showed for the first time that the Diacetyl enzyme Sirt1 present in the hypothalamus operates as a nutrient sensor involved in regulating food intake. He also revealed that endoplasmic reticulum stress developed in the hypothalamus of the obese prevents the proper protein folding and processing of POMC. An essential anorectic precursor to maintain body weight in check. He published a textbook entitled Textbook of Energy Balance, Neuropeptide Hormones, and Neuroendocrine Function.
Personal life
Nillni’s wife, Marina, is a manager in the Research Informatics Operation department at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard affiliated hospital. The couple has two daughters. Yael, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, is an assistant professor at Boston University and holds a Boston Veterans Administration Hospital tenure position. Anna, a graduate of New York University, has a senior project manager position at a marketing company specializing in the pharmaceutical industry. The entire family lives in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
Selected references
1. [BOOK] Textbook of Energy Balance, Neuropeptide Hormones, and Neuroendocrine Function. EA Nillni - 2018 - Springer 2. Hypothalamic ER-associated degradation regulates POMC maturation, feeding, and age-associated obesity. Kim GH, Shi G, Somlo DR, Haataja L, Song S, Long Q, Nillni EA, Low MJ, Arvan P, Myers MG Jr, Qi L. J Clin Invest. 2018 Mar 1;128(3):1125-1140. doi: 10.1172/JCI96420. Epub 2018 Feb 19.PMID: 29457782 3. Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, the Hypothalamus, and Energy Balance. Cakir I, Nillni EA.Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2019 Mar;30(3):163-176. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2019.01.002. Epub 2019 Jan 25.PMID: 30691778 Review. 4. The metabolic sensor Sirt1 and the hypothalamus: Interplay between peptide hormones and pro-hormone convertases. Nillni EA. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2016 Dec 15;438:77-88. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2016.09.002. Epub 2016 Sep 8.PMID: 27614022 Review. 5. The biology of pro-thyrotropin-releasing hormone-derived peptides. Nillni EA, Sevarino KA.Endocr Rev. 1999 Oct;20(5):599-648. doi: 10.1210/edrv.20.5.0379.PMID: 10529897 Review. No abstract available. 6. Obesity induces hypothalamic endoplasmic reticulum stress and impairs proopiomelanocortin (POMC) post-translational processing. 7. Cakir I, Cyr NE, Perello M, Litvinov BP, Romero A, Stuart RC, Nillni EA.J Biol Chem. 2013 Jun 14;288(24):17675-88. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M113.475343. Epub 2013 May 2.PMID: 23640886 Free PMC article. 8. Hypothalamic Sirt1 regulates food intake in a rodent model system. 9. Cakir I, Perello M, Lansari O, Messier NJ, Vaslet CA, Nillni EA.PLoS One. 2009 Dec 15;4(12):e8322. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008322.PMID: 20020036 Free PMC article. 10. The Nutrient and Energy Sensor Sirt1 Regulates the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis by Altering the Production of the Prohormone Convertase 2 (PC2) Essential in the Maturation of Corticotropin-releasing Hormone (CRH) from Its Prohormone in Male Rats. 11. Toorie AM, Cyr NE, Steger JS, Beckman R, Farah G, Nillni EA.J Biol Chem. 2016 Mar 11;291(11):5844-59. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M115.675264. Epub 2016 Jan 11.PMID: 26755731 Free PMC article. 12. Regulation of hypothalamic prohormone convertases 1 and 2 and effects on processing of prothyrotropin-releasing hormone. 13. Sanchez VC, Goldstein J, Stuart RC, Hovanesian V, Huo L, Munzberg H, Friedman TC, Bjorbaek C, Nillni EA.J Clin Invest. 2004 Aug;114(3):357-69. doi: 10.1172/JCI21620.PMID: 15286802 Free PMC article.