Dan Hardy
Affiliations
Scientist, Division of Maternal, Fetal & Newborn Health, Children's Health Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Physiology & Pharmacology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University
How my research helps children
My work further emphasizes the importance of a healthy pregnancy given that adverse events during fetal and neonatal development can have both short-term effects on children and long-term (i.e. CVD and diabetes) as adults. These adverse in utero events include under-nutrition and low oxygen, and both lead to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Specifically, my recent research has identified that impaired fetal development can lead to elevated circulating cholesterol in young and old rat offspring. Recent focus in the lab involves how perinatal intervention (e.g. diet) in IUGR offspring can prevent the development of these long-term adult disease processes.
Research
Current Research
To date, Dr. Hardy has recently submitted a manuscript in Moledular Endocrinology entitled “Maternal Protein Restriction Elevates Cholesterol in Adult Rat Offspring Due to Repressive Histone Modifications at the Promoter of Hepatic Cholesterol 7α-Hydroxylase.” He was also guest editor for an upcoming issue of Seminars in Reproduction focused on the "Early Life Origins of Adult Diseases."
Research Team
Dr. Hardy’s lab consists of four graduate students (three MSc and one PhD), an undergraduate student, and a laboratory/animal technician. Dr. Hardy anticipates recruiting an additional MSc student and a Physiology and Pharmacology student in the fall of 2013. Moreover, his laboratory was recently renovated due to a CFI award with Dr. Tim Regnault. To date, Dr. Hardy continues to collaborate with many members of CHRI including Drs. Tim Regnault, Dean Betts, Bryan Richardson and Edith Arany.
Future Research Plans
In addition to Dr. Hardy’s interests in the role of nuclear receptors in fetal programming (due to nutrition and hypoxia), his lab has also identified some of the epigenetic mechanisms involved. Looking forward, Dr. Hardy’s lab is interested in how intervention in neonatal life may impair or prevent on the onset of adult diseases in IUGR offspring. Furthermore, Dr. Hardy has a keen interest in how microRNAs might be involved in regulating organ growth in prenatal and postnatal life. Collaborations with experts in the field at the University of Florida are helping him address these important and interesting questions.
Awards & Grants
Awards & Grants
Perkin-Elmer Early Research Award – Awarded by Perinatal Research Society
Funding in support of Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the In utero Origins of Hypercholesterolemia – Awarded by Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)
Funding in support of Preventing Hypercholesterolemia by Neonatal Intervention with LXR Agonists – Awarded by Lawson Health Research Institute
Endocrine Scholar Award – Awarded by The Endocrine Society
Faculty of Science Alumni of Honour Award – Awarded by University of Waterloo
Sigma Xi Award – Awarded by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Post doctoral Fellowship – Awarded by Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
CIHR New Investigator Award in support of “The Molecular Mechanisms for Fetal Programming”– Awarded by SickKids Foundation
Funding in support of “The Role of Nuclear Receptors in Fetal Programming” – Awarded by Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC)
Funding in support of “Measuring Changes in Nuclear Receptor Binding During Fetal and Neonatal Development Using ChIP” – Awarded by Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada
Funding in support of “A laboratory for investigating the Role of Fetal Programming in Metabolic Syndrome” – Awarded by Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
Academic Enrichment Fund – Awarded by The University of Western Ontario
Recent Publications
Publications
The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Today's Perspectives and Tomorrow's Challenges.
Hardy DB
Semin Reprod Med. 2011;29(3):171-172
Maternal Protein Restriction Elevates Cholesterol in Adult Rat Offspring Due to Repressive Changes in Histone Modifications at the Cholesterol 7a-Hydroxylase Promoter.
Sohi G, Marchand K, Revesz A, Arany E, Hardy DB.
Mol Endocrinol. 2011 Mar 3
Sp1 Response Elements within the MAPK Phosphatase-1 (MKP-1/DUSP1) Promoter Mediate Progesterone Receptor (PR) Induced MKP-1 Expression in Breast Cancer Cells
Chien CC, Hardy DB, Mendelson CR
Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2011. 6;286(50):43091-102
Permanent implications of IUGR on cholesterol homeostasis
Sohi G, Revesz A, Hardy DB
Semin Reprod Med. 2011;29(3):246-256
Gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists suppress aromatase and anti-Müllerian hormone expression in human granulosa cells
Winkler N, Bukulmez O, Hardy DB, Carr BR
Fertil Steril. 2009 Nov 5
Antisense transcripts are targets for activating small RNAs
Schwartz JC, Younger ST, Nguyen NB, Hardy DB, Monia BP, Corey DR, Janowski BA
Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2008 Aug;15(8):842-8
Androstenedione up-regulation of endometrial aromatase expression via local conversion to estrogen: potential relevance to the pathogenesis of endometriosis.
Bukulmez O, Hardy DB, Carr BR, Auchus RJ, Toloubeydokhti T, Word RA, Mendelson CR
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Sep;93(9):3471-7
Progesterone receptor inhibits aromatase and inflammatory response pathways in breast cancer cells via ligand-dependent and ligand-independent mechanisms.
Hardy DB, Janowski BA, Chen CC, Mendelson CR
Mol Endocrinol. 2008 Aug;22(8):1812-24.
Inflammatory status influences aromatase and steroid receptor expression in endometriosis
Bukulmez O, Hardy DB, Carr BR, Word RA, Mendelson CR
Endocrinology. 2008 Mar;149(3):1190-204
Progesterone receptor expression is a marker for early stage breast cancer: implications for progesterone receptor as a therapeutic tool and target
Coyle YM, Xie XJ, Hardy DB, Ashfaq R, Mendelson CR
Cancer Lett. 2007 Dec 18;258(2):253-61.
Activating gene expression in mammalian cells with promoter-targeted duplex RNAs.
Janowski BA, Younger ST, Hardy DB, Ram R, Huffman KE, Corey DR.
Nat Chem Biol. 2007 Mar;3(3):166-73
Role of the progesterone receptor (PR) in the regulation of inflammatory response pathways and aromatase in the breast
Hardy DB, Janowski BA, Corey DR, Mendelson CR
J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2006 Dec;102(1-5):241-9
Progesterone receptor plays a major antiinflammatory role in human myometrial cells by antagonism of nuclear factor-kappaB activation of cyclooxygenase 2 expression.
Hardy DB, Janowski BA, Corey DR, Mendelson CR
Mol Endocrinol. 2006 Nov;20(11):2724-33
Additional publications
Contact
Phone: 519-661-2111 x 84238
Fax: 519-661-3827
Email: Daniel [dot] Hardy [at] schulich [dot] uwo [dot] ca
Website: http://www.uwo.ca/physpharm/faculty/hardy_daniel.html
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