Frank Duca

Associate Professor, Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology

E-MAIL: [email protected]
Advising Statement

Research Interests:

The Duca lab is extremely interested in how dietary and environmental exposures impact the development of obesity and diabetes. Specifically, using a variety of sophisticated in vivo approaches, our lab examines how gut-brain signaling influence both energy and glucose homeostasis either via the peripheral nervous system or acting at the brain via circulating factors. We are extremely interested in how different dietary components, like fat, sugar, and fiber, impact metabolic homeostasis, and how the gut microbiome mediates these impacts. We study how probiotics, prebiotics, or metabolites produced from the gut microbiome affect host metabolism either directly at the intestine, or remotely at the peripheral nervous system, liver, or brain. More recently, we have begun exploring how the gut-brain axis bidirectionally regulates development of certain cancers. 
 
Our lab specializes in in vivo surgical approaches to target specific neuronal signaling pathways, either in the peripheral nervous system or the brain. More specifically, we have methods to target select vagal or spinal afferent or efferent neurons that innervate specific anatomical locations, and using optogenetics or chemogenetics we can activate or silence these signaling pathways in-vivo. Similarly, using stereotaxic surgery and various viral approaches, we are interested in better understanding how the hindbrain relays signals to the hypothalamus and other higher order brain regions to regulate energy and glucose homeostasis. Lastly, we combine our neural surgical techniques with various peripheral catherizations of the vasculature or intestine to understand how bacterially-derived metabolites can impact the brain either directly or indirectly via the peripheral nervous system to regulate metabolic homeostasis or contribute to tumor development.  Overall, our goal is to better understand the role of gut-brain signaling on host health, and to understand how diet and other environmental exposures impact the gut microbiome, with the hope of developing novel targeted therapeutics to treat obesity, diabetes, and cancer.

Publications

Complete List: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=duca+fa&sort=date

  • Wachsmuth HR, Duca FA. Small but mighty: inulin promotes small intestinal bacterial fructose feeding. Nat Metab. 2025 Sep;7(9):1720-1722.
  • Byndloss M, Devkota S, Duca F, Niess JH, Nieuwdorp M, Orho-Melander M, Sanz Y, Tremaroli V, Zhao L. The Gut Microbiota and Diabetes: Research, Translation, and Clinical Applications-2023 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Diabetologia Expert Forum. Diabetes. 2024 Sep 1;73(9):1391-1410.
  • Howard EJ, Meyer RK, Weninger SN, Martinez T, Wachsmuth HR, Pignitter M, Auñon-Lopez A, Kangath A, Duszka K, Gu H, Schiro G, Laubtiz D, Duca FA. Impact of Plant-Based Dietary Fibers on Metabolic Homeostasis in High-Fat Diet Mice via Alterations in the Gut Microbiota and Metabolites. J Nutr. 2024 Jul;154(7):2014-2028.
  • Martinez TM&, Wachsmuth HR, Meyer RK, Weninger SN, Lane AI, Kangath A, Schiro G, Laubitz D, Stern JH, Duca FA. Differential effects of plant-based flours on metabolic homeostasis and the gut microbiota in high-fat fed rats. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2023 Oct 19;20(1):44.
  • Weninger SN&, Herman C, Meyer RK, Beauchemin ET, Kangath A, Lane AI, Martinez T, Hasneen T, Jaramillo SA, Lindsey J, Vedantam G, Cai H, Cope EK, Caporaso JG, Duca FA. Oligofructose Improves Small Intestinal Lipid-Sensing Mechanisms via Alterations to the Small Intestinal Microbiota. Microbiome. 2023. Aug 2;11(1):169
  • Meyer RK&, Bime MA, Duca FA. Small intestinal metabolomics analysis reveals differentially regulated metabolite profiles in obese rats and with prebiotic supplementation. Metabolomics. 2022 Jul 23;18(8):60.
  • Meyer RK&, Lane AI, Weninger SN, Martinez TM, Kangath A, Laubitz D, Duca FA. Oligofructose restores postprandial short chain fatty acid levels during high-fat feeding. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2022 Jul;30(7):1442-1452.
  • Wachsmuth HR&, Weninger SN, Duca FA. Role of the gut-brain axis in energy and glucose metabolism. Exp Mol Med. 2022 Apr;54(4):377-392.
  • Yue JTY, Duca FA, Lam TKT. Silencing gut CCK cells alters gut reaction to sugar. Nat Neurosci. 2022 Feb;25(2):136-138.
  • Duca FA, Waise TMZ, Peppler WT, Lam TKT. The metabolic impact of small intestinal nutrient sensing. Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 10;12(1):903.
  • Duca FA, Lam TKT. Bye, bye, bile: how altered bile acid composition changes small intestinal lipid sensing. Gut. 2020Sep;69(9):1549-1550.
  • Bauer PV*, Duca FA*, Waise TM, Rasmussen BA, Abraham MA, Dranse HJ, Puri A, O’Brien CA, Lam TK. Metformin alters upper small intestinal microbiota that impact a glucose- SGLT1 sensing glucoregulatory pathway. Cell Metab 2017 (epub). *Equal Contributions
  • Bauer, PV, Duca FA, Waise TM, Dranse HJ, Rasmussen BA, Puri A, Rasti M, O’Brien CA, Lam TK. Microbiota in the upper small intestine alters ACSL3-dependent fatty acid sensing pathway to influence whole-body glucose homeostasis. Cell Metab 2017 (epub).
  • Yue JT, Abraham MA, Bauer PV, LaPierre MP, Wang P, Duca FA, Filippi BM, Chan O, Lam TK. Inhibition of glycine transporter 1 in the dorsal vagal complex improves metabolic homeostasis in diabetes and obesity. Nat Commun 2016 ;7: 13501
  • Duca FA, Côté CD, Rasmussen BA, Zadeh-Tahmasebi M, Rutter GA, Filippi BM, Lam TK. Metformin activates a duodenal Ampk-dependent pathway to lower hepatic glucose production in rats. Nat Med 2015 ;21: 506-511.
  • Côté CD*, Rasmussen BA*, Duca FA*, Zadeh-Tahmasebi M, Baur JA, Daljeet M, Breen DM, Filippi BM, Lam TK. Resveratrol activates duodenal Sirt1 to reverse insulin resistance in rats through a neuronal network. Nat Med 2015 ;21: 498-505. *Equal Contributions
  • Duca FA, Katebzadeh S, Covasa M. Impaired GLP-1 signaling contributes to reduced sensitivity to duodenal nutrients in obesity-prone rats during HF-feeding. Obesity. 2015 ;23:2260-8
  • Duca FA, Bauer PV, Hamr SC, Lam TK. Glucoregulatory Relevance of Small Intestinal Nutrient Sensing in Physiology, Bariatric Surgery, and Pharmacology. Cell Metab. 2015;22:367-80.
  • Bauer PV, Hamr SC, Duca FA. Regulation of energy balance by a gut-brain axis and involvement of the gut microbiota. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2015.
  • Duca FA, Yue JT. Fatty acid sensing in the gut and the hypothalamus: in vivo and in vitro perspectives. Mol Cell Endocrinol 2014;397: 23-33.
  • Filippi BM, Bassiri A, Abraham MA, Duca FA, Yue JT, Lam TK. Insulin signals through the dorsal vagal complex to regulate energy balance. Diabetes 2014 ;63: 892-899.
  • Duca FA, Sakar Y, Covasa M. Combination of obesity and high-fat feeding diminishes sensitivity to GLP-1R agonist exendin-4. Diabetes 2013 ;62: 2410-2415.
  • Duca FA, Zhong L, Covasa M. Reduced CCK signaling in obese-prone rats fed a high fat diet. Hormones and behavior 2013 ;64: 812-817.
  • Duca FA, Swartz TD, Sakar Y, Covasa M. Decreased intestinal nutrient response in diet- induced obese rats: role of gut peptides and nutrient receptors. Int J Obes (Lond) 2013 ;37: 375-381.
  • Swartz TD, Duca FA, Covasa M. Differential feeding behavior and neuronal responses to CCK in obesity-prone and -resistant rats. Brain Res 2010 ;1308: 79-86.
Frank Duca