Jacqueline Beaudry

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*Accepting new undergraduate summer research students for 2023*

At a Glance

• Dr. Beaudry’s research interests are in the area of biological systems that influence the onset of obesity and diabetes. She is specifically interested in the influence of high fat diets and hormone biology on fat metabolism.
• Dr. Beaudry's research is currently funded by a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leader Fund.

About Dr. Jacqueline Beaudry

Dr. Beaudry comes most recently from post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Drucker at the Lunenfeld-Tannenbaum Research Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital where she held a Canadian Diabetes Association post-doctoral fellowship. She received her PhD in the Kinesiology and Health Science department at York University in September 2013 and her Master’s in the biology department at McMaster University in September 2009. Dr. Beaudry was the recipient of the 2014 Governor General’s Medal for her PhD thesis on the role of stress hormones and high fat diet on diabetes development.

Research Synopsis

The Beaudry lab is focused on understanding how excess dietary fat and elevated stress, pancreatic and gut-derived hormones impact white and brown fat tissue biology. Fat tissue is a very interesting organ to study as it highly sensitive to its surrounding external and internal environments. Healthy fat function is important to overall health and energy balance, and we hope to use our studies to provide insight into chronic metabolic disease development such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.  

Recent Awards and Distinctions (Selected)

Connaught New Researcher Award, University of Toronto (2021)

NSERC-Discovery Grant Early Career Researcher Award, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2021)

Canadian Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal for PhD Thesis and Dissertation, York University (2014)

Thesis and Dissertation Prize, York University (2014)

National and International Committee Memberships (Current)

Training and Research Excellence Committee, Banting and Best Diabetes Centre, University of Toronto (2021 - present)

Recent Publications

1. Yehia NA, Lai KZH, Semnani-Azad Z, Blanco Mejia S, Bazinet RP, Beaudry JL, Hanley AJ. Association of branched chain fatty acids with cardiometabolic disorders in humans: a systematic review. Nutr Rev. 2023 Jan 10;81(2):180-190. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuac051. PMID: 36029228.
2. Vasileva A, Marx T, Beaudry JL, Stern JH. Glucagon receptor signaling at white adipose tissue does not regulate lipolysis. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2022 Oct 1;323(4):E389-E401. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.00078.2022. Epub 2022 Aug 24. PMID: 36002172; PMCID: PMC9576180.
3. Campbell JE, Beaudry JL, Svendsen B, Baggio LL, Gordon AN, Ussher JR, Wong CK, Gribble FM, D'Alessio DA, Reimann F, Drucker DJ. The GIPR is Predominantly Localized to Non-Adipocyte Cell Types Within White Adipose Tissue. Diabetes. 2022 Feb 22:db211166. doi: 10.2337/db21-1166. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35192688.
4. Mir N, Chin SA, Riddell MC, Beaudry JL. Genomic and Non-Genomic Actions of Glucocorticoids on Adipose Tissue Lipid Metabolism. Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Aug 7;22(16):8503. doi: 10.3390/ijms22168503. PMID: 34445209; PMCID: PMC8395154.
5. Kaur KD, Wong CK, Baggio LL, Beaudry JL, Fuchs S, Panaro BL, Matthews D, Cao X, Drucker DJ. TCF7 is not essential for glucose homeostasis in mice. Mol Metab. 2021 Jun;48:101213. doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2021.101213. Epub 2021 Mar 17. PMID: 33741532; PMCID: PMC8086146.
6. Varin EM, Hanson AA, Beaudry JL, Nguyen MA, Cao X, Baggio LL, Mulvihill EE, Drucker DJ. Hematopoietic cell- versus enterocyte-derived dipeptidyl peptidase-4 differentially regulates triglyceride excursion in mice. JCI Insight. 2020 Aug 20;5(16):e140418. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.140418. PMID: 32663193; PMCID: PMC7455127.
7. Beaudry JL, Drucker DJ. Proglucagon-Derived Peptides, Glucose-Dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide, and Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4-Mechanisms of Action in Adipose Tissue. Endocrinology. 2020 Jan 1;161(1):bqz029. doi: 10.1210/endocr/bqz029. PMID: 31782955.
8. Deshmukh AS, Peijs L, Beaudry JL, Jespersen NZ, Nielsen CH, Ma T, Brunner AD, Larsen TJ, Bayarri-Olmos R, Prabhakar BS, Helgstrand C, Severinsen MCK, Holst B, Kjaer A, Tang-Christensen M, Sanfridson A, Garred P, Privé GG, Pedersen BK, Gerhart-Hines Z, Nielsen S, Drucker DJ, Mann M, Scheele C. Proteomics-Based Comparative Mapping of the Secretomes of Human Brown and White Adipocytes Reveals EPDR1 as a Novel Batokine. Cell Metab. 2019 Nov 5;30(5):963-975.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2019.10.001. Epub 2019 Oct 24. PMID: 31668873.
9. Beaudry JL, Kaur KD, Varin EM, Baggio LL, Cao X, Mulvihill EE, Bates HE, Campbell JE, Drucker DJ. Physiological roles of the GIP receptor in murine brown adipose tissue. Mol Metab. 2019 Oct;28:14-25. doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2019.08.006. Epub 2019 Aug 10. PMID: 31451430; PMCID: PMC6822254.
10. Beaudry JL, Kaur KD, Varin EM, Baggio LL, Cao X, Mulvihill EE, Stern JH, Campbell JE, Scherer PE, Drucker DJ. The brown adipose tissue glucagon receptor is functional but not essential for control of energy homeostasis in mice. Mol Metab. 2019 Apr;22:37-48. doi: 10.1016/j.molmet.2019.01.011. Epub 2019 Feb 5. PMID: 30772257; PMCID: PMC6437632.

In the News

• 'Before insulin, diabetes was a death sentence': The miracle that two Canadians gave the world 100 years ago is still saving lives. Toronto Star. November 14, 2021.
• From detecting earthquakes to preventing disease: 27 U of T research projects receive CFI funding. U of T News. August 12, 2021.
• Insulin 100: How the road to a diabetes cure is yielding better treatments. U of T News. April 1, 2021.

Current Lab Members

Negar Mir Ghasemy – MSc student

Samrin Kagdi - MSc student

Zara Shahabi Nezhard – MSc student

Teaching Appointments

Course Instructor, HLTB11H3 – Basic Human Nutrition, University of Toronto Scarborough