Clinical Scholar
Jorge is a Clinical Scholar in the Laboratory of Molecular Metabolism focused on understanding the clinical and biological determinants of human brown adipose tissue and its role in cardiometabolic disease. He received his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, Colombia, where he developed a broad research background in endocrinology, including obesity, neuroendocrinology, and endocrine oncology. During his final year of medical training, Jorge joined Paul Cohen’s laboratory at The Rockefeller University, where he began integrating large-scale human clinical data with mechanistic studies of adipose tissue biology. As a Clinical Scholar, his current work investigates how variation in brown fat metabolic activity relates to metabolic and cardiovascular health, identifies genetic determinants of thermogenic adipose tissue activity in humans, and explores commonly used medications that may directly activate brown fat and potentially be repurposed for metabolic disease. Outside the lab, Jorge enjoys playing volleyball and traveling.
Areas of Interest/Expertise: Translational investigation, organismal and cellular metabolism, brown adipose tissue biology.
Fellowships, awards, or major grants:
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program
Selected publications:
- Koenen M, Becher T, Pagano G, Del Gaudio I, Barrero JA, Montezano AC, Ruiz Ortiz J, Lin Z, Gómez-Banoy N, Amblard R, Schriever D, Kars ME, Rubinelli L, Halix SJ, Huang Cao ZF, Zeng X, Butler SD, Itan Y, Touyz RM, Di Lorenzo A, Cohen P. Ablation of Prdm16 and beige fat identity causes vascular remodeling and elevated blood pressure. Science. 2026;391(6782):306-313. doi:10.1126/science.ady8644.
- Barrero JA, Duarte-Zambrano F, Aránzalez LH, Cruz-González M, Mockus I. Salivary cortisol/DHEA ratio response to acute academic stress and its association with performance in middle-to-late adolescents. Neuroendocrinol Lett. 2024;45(4):255-261. PMID: 39607355.
- Barrero JA, Mockus I. Early menarche in visually impaired girls: evidence and hypothesis of light-dark cycle disruption and blindness effect on puberty onset. Chronobiol Int. 2022;39(3):409-420. doi:10.1080/07420528.2021.1998103.