Jan 10, 2020

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Denise Belsham

Denise Belsham

Headshot of Professor Denise BelshamQ: What is your area of research and why do you do it?

I'm a neuroendocrinologist, so we look at how hormones coming from the body affect the brain, as well as how the brain can change and control our basic physiology.

We study problems like how and why people eat and what affects this process. For instance, if you're eating a high fat diet fat versus a diet high in omega three unsaturated fats, is that going to change the way your brain responds? Yes! We found that if you eat a high fat diet, your brain will become chronically inflamed -- not like a fever but a low-grade inflammatory response. But we also found you can fight that inflammation with anti-inflammatories and nutrients like omega three fatty acids.

We also study circadian rhythms -- our day/night cycle -- and how nutrients and endocrine disrupting chemicals affect that cycle. Also why doing more at night versus the day might cause our physiology to suffer. Why we might gain weight, feel more tired, or feel more stressed. I apply what we learn in our lab to my life all the time!

Quote from body text in white text on blue background.Q: What attracted you to science and to physiology?

I come from what I would consider a relatively low socio-economic class, a blue-collar part of Winnipeg. No one from my family had gone to university until I had the opportunity to attend the University of Manitoba. So there was pushback. Because if you don't know what a scientist is, or does, why would you encourage anyone to do that?

But I had one high school teacher who piqued my interest in genetics. I found it absolutely fascinating. And I was really good at it. And it challenged me. There weren't a lot of challenges for me in high school because when you come from a blue-collar neighbourhood, they're trying to get the kids that don't have a lot of educational background to catch up. But genetics was one of the challenges. I thought “This is fun, and would actually probably continue to challenge me.”

So I knew in grade ten that I wanted to be a geneticist. I didn’t know how I was going to become a geneticist, because I had no one to give me advice on that at all, and we didn't have counsellors at our high school either. But nonetheless, I ended up doing my undergrad in genetics, then my PhD in human genetics and biochemistry, both at the University of Manitoba. Then I went to the University of California San Diego for a few years and did postdoc work in neuroscience and reproductive biology.

After that, I was offered a few jobs at biotech companies, which I was very interested in, but I decided I would give Canada a chance first before I stayed in the US. I was offered four academic jobs, and ended up choosing the University of Toronto.

Q: What do you appreciate about U of T’s physiology department?Quote from body text in white text on blue background.

We have world-class researchers and programs. There are so many opportunities to do research that aren’t possible in other parts of the country, or even the world. I think the more innovative and talented people migrate towards the bigger and best universities and that's why there's this opportunity to work with brilliant minds.

The options that I had when I was a graduate student were limited because there were maybe twenty faculty in our department. Here with 6000 faculty just in the Faculty of Medicine, you have a lot of people you can work with and form meaningful collaborations. And if you find the right mentor, they have connections, so there's always something that you can build on.

We're not necessarily just here to train academics. In my lab, we focus a lot on translation, I teach a course on commercialization, and I also got the ball rolling back in 2015 toward the creation of our professional Masters -- the MHSc in Medical Physiology. So there are these opportunities that you might not get at another university.

I tell my students "I'm giving you the resources and the opportunity to take your career to the next level. And I think that here at U of T there's a lot of opportunities to really do something that is outstanding and could really benefit the world.” That's critical to understand.

Faculty Spotlight is a new series that highlights the stories of U of T Physiology's faculty and research.

Thank you to Professor Belsham for being our first subject!