$10.9M grant to support center for lipid biologyby Dick PetersonPublic Relations Fatty molecules practically bulge with information that could lead to new therapies in the fight against cancer, and against inflammatory and neuro-degenerative diseases. It’s a cache of coded information principal investigator Lina Obeid, M.D., and co-investigator Yusuf Hannun, M.D., want to crack. Their recent $10.9 million grant for an MUSC Center in Lipidomics and Pathobiology will let them do exactly that. “When I first came here four years ago, I jotted down some ideas of what would be nice to have,” Hannun said, “and one was a center for lipid biology. But who’s going to fund a center in lipid biology? It’s just not something on everyone’s radar screen. “So this is a dream come true, and we’re excited about that.” Lipids are fat molecules. To the consumer fat is fat, but to the biologist not all lipids are the same. And therein lies the interest shown by the National Institutes of Health to award Obeid and Hannun—and MUSC—a Center of Biological Research Excellence (COBRE) grant, a five-year renewable affirmation to explore the roles of lipids in cell growth, cell death, cell aging, inflammation and infectious diseases. The grant will allow the center to support the lipidomics research of junior faculty members as they are mentored by senior investigators and eventually “graduate” and themselves mentor new recruits to the program. For Obeid, the grant establishes MUSC not just in lipid research, but as the international center for research in sphingolipids. “Sphingolipid research has come of age in biomedical investigation,” she said. She explained that these unique lipid molecules appear to regulate a number of cell functions with substantial implications in the development of disease therapies. “Learning never stops in research, and that’s what keeps people excited about the research they do. The center will provide a substantial mechanism for mentoring, recruiting and allowing people to develop within the COBRE,” Hannun said. “Needless to say, we’re very excited about this program. The fact that we were funded on the first try speaks highly of the stature of this group nationally and of MUSC itself.” Certainly the focus of weight managers and cardiologists, the relatively small and apparently simple lipid molecules have long been known by biologists to be the stuff that surrounds the contents of a living cell by forming the cell membrane. When the cell divides, the lipid molecules themselves define the formation of the new cells and collect the contents of each. But within the lipid molecule is a capacity to signal changes that affect cell growth and division. It’s this capacity that has made cell biologists take note of the role certain lipid molecules play in proliferation of cancer cells, aging, neurologic disease such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and fungal pathogenesis. “It has become known that lipids play an important role in cell regulation,” Hannun said. “One would suspect them to be stable and not change much, but what has really turned out to be the case is that when cells receive a stimulus, many times they use lipids and other small molecules as messengers, as regulatory molecules. “This is an evolving concept in cell biology.” Hannun said that although there were hints of functional roles for lipids in the 1940s and ‘50s, the real thrust came in the ‘80s when people learned about a lipid molecule that appears to signal tumor promotion. “So when a cell receives a hormone stimulus or other stimulus, part of the membrane’s lipids break down. They send a signal that turns on a response and so it’s a dynamic process,” he said. “We have here probably the most advanced group in the world studying sphingolipids,” Hannun said. “Sphingolipids are a unique class of lipids that seem to be involved in many cell functions.” He explained that some sphingolipids are critical in angiogenesis, the formation of blood vessels that feed cancer tumors. Others, he said, seem to be critical in aging, particularly in neurodegenerative disorders, a group of diseases that include Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease and Parkinson’s, as well as some inherited disorders. “We have a lot of outstanding senior investigators here involved in lipid biochemistry at the most fundamental level,” Hannun said, “and we have a group of junior faculty who are beginning to be interested in developing in lipid biochemistry and biology. Hannun said that translation of basic research into real benefits for people has always been a major problem in biomedical research. “When you study something at the basic level you know it’s related, but how do you really find out how it’s related and how do you then capitalize on that knowledge to understand the disease and diagnose and treat it? How do you translate that into something the patient benefits from?” The center has initiated five projects to be coordinated with junior faculty mentored by senior faculty, all from various departments throughout the university. Also within the center will be three research cores: The lipidomics core to measure and synthesize lipids, an animal pathobiology core to develop specific animal models of disease, and a protein science core to allow people to work on the proteins that work on the lipids. “So these cores serve two functions,” Hannun said. “They enhance the main research activities of the center and they begin the process of translating the research. We can measure specific lipids on specific diseased tissues; we can measure lipids from tumors and from diseased brains, for example; and we can develop small molecules for therapeutics. And we have the animal models.” Junior Faculty Projects
Core A COBRE Administrative Core, Lina Obeid, M.D. Core B COBRE Lipidomics Core, Alicija Bielawska, Ph.D. Core C COBRE Animal Pathobiology Core, Edward Balish, Ph.D. Core D COBRE Protein Science Core, Julie Chao, Ph.D. Senior Faculty Mentors
Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as
needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations
for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South
Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107
or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst
Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu
or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community
Press at 849-1778.
|
|