Primary Research Focus
The goal of the Baack Lab is to understand the role of lipid metabolism, mitochondria and oxidative stress in the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD).
Disease actually starts long before any symptoms ever develop and is often triggered by genetic and environmental influences. When an environmental stimulus occurs during a critical window of early development it can change gene expression to cause life-long changes in the structure and function of the body, this is called developmental programming.
Infants born to diabetic or obese mothers are at higher risk of heart disease at birth and as an adult, likely due to exposure to excess circulating fuels (glucose and lipids) in utero. Even more, this risk can extend to the next generation. While improving glucose control during pregnancy is the standard of care, we found that dietary fat intake is likely an additional factor that determines the health of both mother and her baby.
Using a rat model, we discovered that excess circulating fats from maternal diabetes and a high-fat diet damage mitochondria in the developing fetal heart, leading to impaired metabolism, energy production, contractility, and a greater risk of cell death (heart attack) in adulthood.
With this understanding, our lab is developing methods to detect, prevent and treat heart disease in high-risk babies and the second generation.
About the Baack Lab
Lab Projects and News
Neonatal Research Network
Dr. Baack’s clinical research has focused on optimizing the provision of essential fatty acids key to normal infant health, brain and retinal development. We completed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial that established feasibility, tolerability and improved efficacy of daily enteral docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation for premature infants to serve as the foundation for larger studies aimed at improved outcomes. The Mother’s Milk DHA study helped moms assure that their breast milk provides the best fats to support their baby’s development. With Dr. Baack’s help, Sanford Research and Sanford Health paired up to establish a strong base of clinical research in the Boekelheide NICU. This includes leading an initiative to be approved as a satellite site to the University of Iowa in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) - Neonatal Research Network (NRN).
Mitochondrial Dynamism & Heart Disease
Dr. Baack was the recipient of an NIH-K08 Career Development Award with a basic science project aimed at understanding fuel-mediated effects on the developing heart. Using a rat model, the Baack Lab showed that late-gestation diabetes, especially alongside a maternal high-fat diet, incites mitochondrial dysfunction, altered bioenergetics and cardiomyopathy in newborn offspring. Cardiometabolic consequences persist in adulthood. Findings serve as a critical step in understanding the role of mitochondria and cellular bioenergetics in developmentally programmed cardiovascular disease. Now, under NIH-COBRE project and foundation funding, the lab is translating findings through the use of cardiac progenitor cells derived from human umbilical – mesenchymal stem cells. Our lab also collaborates with others to understand additional untoward consequences and molecular mechanisms of lipid-mediated disease (placental function, stillbirths, pulmonary, renal, pancreatic, neurodevelopmental outcomes).