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Larry L. Bellinger

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Larry L. Bellinger, Ph.D.

Regents Professor
Interim Chair, Department of Biomedical Sciences
Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies
Associate Dean for School of Graduate Studies, Dallas Campus
Member of the GSBS Faculty

3302 Gaston Ave.
Dallas, Texas 75246
Phone: 214-828-8322
Fax: 214-874-4537
Email: lbellinger@bcd.tamhsc.edu

Education and Post-Graduate Training

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Surgery, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY (1974-1976)

Ph.D., Department of Physiology, University of California at Davis (1974)

B.S., Department of Zoology, University of California at Davis (1969)

Career History

Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry (2004-present)

Interim Chair, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry (2012-present)

Associate Dean for School of Graduate Studies, Dallas Campus (2011-present)

Regents Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry (2003-present)

Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M Health Science Center Baylor College of Dentistry (1985-2003)

Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Baylor College of Dentistry (1979-1985)

Associate Professor, Baylor University Graduate School, Dallas (1979-1985)

Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, Baylor College of Dentistry (1976-1979)

Assistant Professor, Baylor University Graduate School, Dallas (1976-1979)

Teaching Interests

Teaching responsibilities include: 

Dental Physiology; Applied Medical Physiology, Course Director (graduate); Physical Growth and Maturation (Graduate); Use and Care of Animals in Research (Course Director).

Research Interests

Over the last 25 years, Dr. Bellinger’s research has primarily focused on the neuroendocrine control of feeding behavior. He has performed extensive studies on the role of hormones, in particular corticosterone and insulin, on the control of feeding behavior. In addition, he has studied the role of the liver in the control of feeding behavior. Internationally known for this work, he has also been invited to present his work in Europe and Asia.

Dr. Bellinger worked with Dr. Dorothy Gietzen at the University of California at Davis on the role of imbalanced amino acid diets on ingestive behavior. These NIH-funded studies have been published in such journals as the American Journal of Physiology and Journal of Nutrition. Dr. Bellinger is the world’s leading expert on the role of the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus in regulating ingestive behavior and body weight.  Most recently Dr. Bellinger has used his knowledge of feeding behavior to develop an NIH-funded animal model to study temporomandibular pain.

Dr. Bellinger has been principal investigator or co-investigator on 19 extramural NIH, NSF or company grants and many in-house grants. These have led to 127 peer-reviewed research publications and 170 abstracts. Dr. Bellinger’s publications have appeared in American Journal of Physiology; Archives in Oral Biology; Brain Research Review; Hormone and Metabolic Research; International Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; Journal of Dental Research; Journal of Nutrition; Journal of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery; Life Science; Neuroendocrinology; Osteoarthritis and Cartilage; Peptides; Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior; Physiology and Behavior; Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine and many other journals. In addition, Dr. Bellinger has five teaching publications, bringing his total publications to 302. Dr. Bellinger’s work has been well accepted and has been quoted over 2,000 times.  He has been asked by 27 different journals to review their manuscripts, has reviewed NIH and NSF grants, and is on the Editorial Board of Physiology and Behavior.  Dr. Bellinger has been interviewed by Science magazine several times.

Dr. Bellinger has been asked to present his work on more than 28 occasions, including several invited symposium talks in Japan, at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, several Experimental Biology meetings, and the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior as well as various universities in the United States.

One of Dr. Bellinger’s former students, Carolyn Kerins, DDS, PhD, was awarded the first-ever NIH Individual Pre-doctoral Dental Scientist Fellowship in September 1998.  This award of over $200,000 in direct/indirect cost funded Dr. Kerins' DDS and PhD program.  She completed her DDS degree in 2002 and was awarded the PhD in May 2004.

Recent Grants

  • Sex steroids and TMJ pain. Bellinger L (PI), Grogan D (Collaborator), Hutchins B (Collaborator), Kramer P (Co-PI), Spears R (Collaborator).   NIH/NIDCR R01 DE016059-10A1; 2005-2011 (no cost extension), $1,500,000.

  • Sex steroids and TMJ pain. Bellinger L, Kramer P. NIH/NIDCR 3 R01 DE01605904S1 (ARRA Supplement); summer supplement 2009, $13,185.

  • Integrative Responses to Amino Acid Deficiencies. NIH NS 33347, 2001-2006. (Subcontract, D. Gietzen, PI)

Selected Publications

  1. Bellinger, L.L., J.F. Evans, and D.W. Gietzen. Dorsomedial hypothalamic lesions alter intake of an imbalanced amino acid diet in rats. J Nutr 128:1213-1217, 1998.
  2. Bellinger, L.L. A non-essential role of liver innervation in controlling feeding behavior. Nutrition 15:506, 1999.
  3. Bellinger, L.L. and L.L. Bernardis. Effect of dorsomedial hypothalamic nuclei knife cuts on ingestive behavior. Am J Physiol 276: R1772-R1779, 1999.
  4. Bellinger, L.L., J.F. Evans, C.M. Tillberg, and D.W. Gietzen. The effects of the dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus on intake of an imbalanced amino acid diet. Am J Physiol 277: R250-R262, 1999.
  5. Bellinger L.L. and L.L. Bernardis. The dorsomedial hypothalamic nucleus and its role in ingestive behavior and body weight regulation; lessons learned from lesioning studies. Physiol Behav 76:431-442, 2002.
  6. Bellinger, L.L., P.J. Wellman and A. Cepeda-Benito. The effects of intermittent nicotine administration on meal patterns in male rats.  Pharm Biochem Behav 74:495-504, 2003.
  7. Kerins, C.A., J. E. McIntosh, D.S. Carlson and L.L. Bellinger. Ibuprofen effects of on meal patterns during acute temporomandibular joint inflammation in male and female rats. Pharm Biochem Behav 75:181-189, 2003.
  8. Bellinger, L.L., A. Cepeda-Benito, R.L. Bullard and P.J. Wellman. Effect of i.c.v. infusion of the a-MSH agonist MTII on meal patterns in male rats following nicotine withdrawal.  Life Sciences 73:1861-1872, 2003.
  9. Spears R., R. Oakes, L.L. Bellinger and B. Hutchins. Tumor necrosis factor-α and apoptosis in the temporomandibular joint. Archives of Oral Biology 48:825-34, 2003.
  10. Spears R, R. Oakes, C. Moore, L.L. Bellinger and B. Hutchins. A determination of tumor necrosis factor expression in TMJ inflammation using microarray analysis. J Dent Res 82:807-813, 2003.
  11. Kerins, C.A., R. Spears, L.L. Bellinger and B. Hutchins. The prospective use of COX-2 inhibitors for the treatment of temporomandibular joint inflammatory disorders. International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology 16:1-9, 2003.
  12. Kerins, C.A., D.S. Carlson, J.E. McIntosh and L.L. Bellinger. A role for cyclooxgenase II inhibitors in modulating temporomandibular joint inflammation from a meal pattern analysis perspective.  J Oralmaxillofacial Surgery 62:989-995, 2004.
  13. Guan, P.J., L.L. Bellinger, and P.R. Kramer.  The fourth ventricle as a site of nicotine’s action on feeding behavior. Life Sci 742725-2737, 2004.
  14. Wellman, P.J., L.L. Bellinger, A. Cepeda-Benito, A. Susabda, D. Ho and K. Davis.  An inexpensive food cup for use in a commercially available food monitoring system.  Physiol Behav 83:525-530, 2004.
  15. Bellinger, L.L., F.E. Williams, J. Lucente, J. Palvelka and D.W. Gietzen.  Effects of blocking sympathetic efferents on intake of an isoleucine imbalanced amino acid diet. Pharm Biochem Behav 81:24-31, 2005.
  16. Bellinger, L.L., P.J. Wellman and A. Cepeda-Benito.  The effects of intermittent nicotine administration on meal patterns in female rats.  Pharm Biochem Behav 80:437-440, 2005.
  17. Kerins, C.A., D.S. Carlson, R.J. Hinton, B. Hutchins, D.M. Grogan, K. Marr, P.R. Kramer, R.D. Spears and L.L. Bellinger.  Specificity of meal pattern analysis as an animal model of determining temporomandibular joint inflammation/pain.  Internat J Oral and Maxillofacial Surg 34:425-431, 2005.
  18. Spears R., L.A. Dees, M. Sapozhnikov, L.L. Bellinger and B. Hutchins. Adjuvant application results in altered levels of inflammatory mediators in the trigeminal ganglion and tissues of the temporomandibular joint.  J Orofacial Pain 19:34-40, 2005.
  19. Guan, G., C.A. Kerins, L.L. Bellinger and P.R. Kramer.  Estrogenic effect on swelling and monocytic receptor expression in an arthritic temporomandibular joint model.  The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 97:241-250, 2005.
  20. Wellman, P.J., L.L. Bellinger, A. Cepeda-Benito, A. Susabda, D.H. Ho and K.W. Davis.  Meal patterns and body weight after nicotine in male rats as a function of chow or high fat diet.   Pharm. Biochem Behav  82:627-34, 2005. 
  21. Kramer, P.R., S.F. Kramer, K. Marr, G. Guan, P.J. Wellman and L.L. Bellinger.  Nicotine administration, changes in feeding behavior and the impact of NPY in rat hypothalamic nuclei.  Regulatory Peptides 138:66-73, 2007.
  22. Bellinger, L.L., R.D. Spears, C.M. King, F. Dahm, B. Hutchins, C. Kerins and P.R. Kramer.  Meal duration as a measure of TMJ pain: the role of capsaicin-sensitive neurons in inflammation-induced TMJ nociception in female and male rats.  Physiol. Behav. 90:782-789, 2007.
  23. Kramer, P.R., G. Guan, P.J. Wellman and L.L. Bellinger.  Nicotine’s attenuation of body weight involves the perifornical hypothalamus. Life Sci. 81:500-508, 2007.
  24. Kramer, P.R., G. Guan, Z. Zhou, Z. Hu and L.L. Bellinger.  Selective blockade of the rat brain aqueduct with thermogelling hydrogel nano particle disperson.  Physiol. Behav.  93:546-552, 2008.
  25. Kramer, P.R. and L.L. Bellinger.  The effects of cycling levels of 17beta-estradiol and progesterone on the magnitude of temporomandibular joint-induced nociception.  Endocrinology 150:3680-9, 2009
  26. Puri, J., B. Hutchins, L.L. Bellinger, and P.R. Kramer.  Estrogen and inflammation modulate estrogen receptor alpha expression in specific tissues of the temporomandibular joint.  Reprod Biol Endocrinol 7:155, 2009.
  27. Bellinger, L.L., P.J. Wellman, R.B. Harris, E.W. Kelso and P.R. Kramer. The effects of chronic nicotine on meal patterns, food intake, metabolism and body weight of male rats.  Pharmacol Biochem Behav 95: 92-99, 2010.
  28. Kramer, P.R. C.A. Kerins, E. Schneiderman, and L.L. Bellinger.  Measuring persistent tempromandibular joint nociception in rats and two mice strains.  Physiol Behav 99:669-678, 2010.
  29. Kramer, P., J. Puri, L. Bellinger.  Knockdown of Fcy receptor III in an arthritic temporomandibular joint reduces the nociceptive response in rats. Arthritis Rheum 62:3109-18, 2010.