Metabolism keeps cells and organisms alive, by giving them the energy they need to carry on and the building blocks they require for growth and propagation. In various diseases, like metabolic syndrome, normal metabolism is disrupted. The fellows below study skeletal muscle energy metabolism and epigenetics of obesity, as well as non-alchoholic fatty liver disease.
Andrea Dalmao Fernández
Country of origin: Spain
Hosts: Hege Thoresen, Arild Rustan and Eili Tranheim Kase
Group: Muscle Research Group
Thematic area: Energy metabolism
Project title: Development of a 3D cell-model of myotubes as a useful tool to study the effects of n-3 fatty acids to counteract obesity and improve muscle functions.
My project
Obesity has increased dramatically in the last decades, becoming an epidemic disease, which affects more than 650 million people worldwide (World Health Organization data). Different lifestyle interventions such as an increased intake of long-chain polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) may have a significant impact on whole-body energy metabolism, promoting body weight regulation by lipid metabolism conversion and muscle function improvement.
By studying myotubes from lean and obese donors establish in a 3D cell-model before and after 10 weeks n-3 PUFA supplementation, we will improve current knowledge about the impact of diet interventions combining clinical and basic research data.
The development of a 3D cell-model will help us to increase the confidence of the in vitro results as well as to improve the knowledge on cell and energy metabolism providing a better understanding of diet interventions related to a physiological environment.
Sadia Saeed
Country of origin: Pakistan
Host: Yvonne Böttcher
Group: Department of Clinical Molecular Biology (EpiGen), Institute of Clinical Medicine
Thematic area: Genetics, epigenetics of obesity, adipose tissue, fat distribution
Project title: Chromatin accessibility landscape and regulatory epigenome in obesity.
My project
Obesity is a complex metabolic disease affecting an alarmingly large part of the world’s population. Moreover, obesity increases the risk of other comorbidities including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver diseases etc. Depot-specific fat accumulation e.g. fat storage in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) strongly correlates with a higher risk of metabolic comorbidities as compare to accumulation of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). The current projects aims to decipher the chromatin architecture differences in terms of its accessibility and downstream gene expression in different fat depots. We will use genome-wide chromatin accessibility and transcriptomic maps generated from obese individuals to unravel the fat depot-specific epigenetic regulation.
Together, our work will provide a powerful framework to identify epigenetic hotspots involved in setting up adipose tissue depot-specific chromatin signature and ultimately its role in obesity and related comorbidities.
Shirin Pourteymour
Country of origin: Iran
Host: Frode Norheim
Group: Molecular metabolism
Thematic area: Liver inflammation
Project title: Role of innate immunity in liver non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
My project
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its sever form so called "nonalcoholic steatohepatitis" (NASH) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. NASH has a global prevalence of 25% and may lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. Despite many research efforts, underlying mechanisms are mainly unknown. An incomplete understanding of how fatty livers develop into NASH has limited the therapeutic options to treat this severe liver disease. Based on our lipidomics and genomics data.
I investigate the genes and lipid species that might activate inflammatory and fibrotic pathways in different cell populations, including hepatocytes, stellate cells, or macrophages. I will specially focus on the role of liver macrophages in NASH development.
Impact: The result of this project will provide a better understanding of liver non-alcoholic steatohepatitis development and consequently identifying a promising therapeutic target(s).