Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured is a not-for-profit student-run free clinic operated under the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Senior Thesis: Site-Directed Mutagenesis Studies of Phosphorylated Lipid Droplet Protein 17β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase type 13 (HSD17β13) Research Advisor: Dr. Angela Stoeckman Abstract: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an increasingly common disease, affecting one in every three people in the United States and 1.5 billion people worldwide. It occurs when a person’s liver cannot successfully break down lipids, causing an accumulation of triglycerides and cholesterol esters within lipid droplets of hepatocytes. Lipid droplets are dynamic organelles containing a neutral lipid core surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer studded with proteins. These proteins can arrange intake and release of fatty acids, however, the function of many of these proteins is still under investigation. To better understand the function of these proteins and how their presence on the lipid droplet is regulated during times of energy shortage, mice were fasted for four hours and then treated with glucagon by portal vein injection. Liver lipid droplets were isolated and enriched for phosphorylated proteins, which were subsequently identified by proteomic studies. 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 13 (HSD17β13) was found to be phosphorylated at two sites following this protocol. HSD17β13 was identified as a novel lipid-droplet associated protein in 2008, found to be expressed only in the liver. The physiological function of this protein is still unknown, but it was found to be up-regulated in livers with NAFLD and is suspected to be pathogenic to NAFLD. Site-directed mutagenesis studies are being performed to determine the importance of these phosphorylation events on the regulation of lipid droplet storage.
Summer intern for the Acute Dialysis unit at the Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls, SD.