Antentor Hinton, Jr., PhD, received a two-year student loan repayment (LRP) grant from the NIH’s National Institutes on Minority Health and Health Disparities while he trains and conducts health disparities research like his latest project exploring how insulin stimulation alters endoplasmic reticulum (ER) contact sites during OPA1-induced mitochondrial stress.

“One of the most significant benefits of these programs is that NIH can repay up to $35,000 in educational loans per year, which helps alleviate an often-cited barrier to entering the biomedical research workforce,” Hinton said. “Since their inception, NIH LRPs have funded more than 25,000 new and renewal awards totaling more than $950 million.”

Hinton’s research investigates whether the increase of the endocrine hormone FGF-21 is caused by impaired OPA1 oligomerization or impaired mitochondrial fusion. Hinton has been working on discovering whether the increased FGF-21 can influence changes in mitochondria endoplasmic reticulum contact proteins, which lead to harmful changes in calcium and lipid transfer between the ER and mitochondria.