The Co-operative Center for Excellence in Hematology has awarded Dr. Kimberly Alonge a pilot and feasibility award for her project entitled “Investigation of versican mediated recruitment of peripheral myeloid cells into the hypothalamus during diet induced obesity.” This 1-year project seeks to understand the functional role for hypothalamic proteoglycans in the recruitment and migration of circulatory inflammatory cells into the hypothalamus during obesity. Dr. Alonge is a postdoctoral fellow of Medicine in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Schwartz.