Upcoming Conferences
Annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
March 25-28, 2023 | Seattle, Washington, USA EVENT WEBSITE
American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting
April 14-19, 2023 | Orlando, Florida EVENT WEBSITE
2023 meeting of the International Society for Hyaluronan Sciences (ISHAS)
June 4-8, 2023 | Portland, Oregon, USA EVENT WEBSITE
Joint meeting of the American Society for Matrix Biology (ASMB), The Histochemical Society (HCS), and the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP)
October 22-25, 2023 | Salt Lake City, Utah, USA EVENT WEBSITE
American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting
December 2-6, 2023 | Boston, Massachusetts, USA EVENT WEBSITE
Presentations
ASBMB 2023
PIKfyve is a kinase that produces PI(3,5)P2 from PI(3)P and has been implicated in a wide range of disorders. Here we describe the development of a competitive assay for PIKfyve activity that directly detects its reaction product PI(3,5)P2 without the need for radioactive labels or extraction for MS analysis.
RSA 2022
Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is an accurate long-term direct biomarker of alcohol ingestion. We set out to develop a simple 96-well assay to detect PEth from human whole blood specimens applied to dried blood spot (DBS) cards. Using ex vivo and authentic in vivo blood samples, we developed methods for PEth extraction and a competitive ELISA that could reproducibly distinguish PEth in samples representing moderate and heavy alcohol consumption with high specificity and sensitivity. This is the first commercially available 96-well PEth ELISA.
PI3K Seminar Series 2020
Part of an ongoing virtual seminar series to address PI3K as a drug target: Class I PI3K: disease modeling and drug targeting. This presentation was an invited talk detailing methodological considerations for visualizing lipids in cells via immunostaining.
ISHAS HA Conference 2019
Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a well-studied glycosaminoglycans (GAG) due to its involvement in a wide range of diseases and serum HA concentration is correlated to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and often used as a biomarker for liver fibrosis. Here we explore the alcohol induced HA signaling pathway by screening possible serum HA binding proteins. We found a 160 kDa serum HA binding protein was significantly reduced at 3 hours after alcohol consumption, but protein levels returned to baseline 6 hours after alcohol consumption. This result demonstrates a quick and easy method to identify HA levels and possible HA binding partners after acute alcohol ingestion.
Experimental Biology 2018
Current methods of extracting and separating phospholipids from biological sources are known to have considerable variation which makes downstream quantification difficult. In this study, we used a PI(4)P specific ELISA to examine the possible sources of this variation including the sample, extraction procedure, and presentation of the lipids. Results using Echelon’s PI(4)P ELISA show that the assay has a low coefficient of variation if the samples and lipids are presented in a standardized manner.
FASEB 2018 #1
Lysosomal phospholipase A2 (LPLA2) is involved in both drug-induced phospholipidosis (DIPL) & drug-induced lupus (DIL), in which, tissue inflammation and organ
damage are observed. Here, we studied the charge & structure of the phospholipid substrate in relation to LPLA2 activity utilizing a self-quenched fluorogenic probe specifically designed for LPLA2 in acidic environment.
FASEB 2018 #2
Autoantibodies to endogenous lipids can be readily found across a variety of tissues and have been implicated in autoimmune disease(s). Diagnosing these diseases typically relies on traditional techniques, such as ELISA, which may not adequately reproduce the in vivo presentation of lipids. Here, we examined several lipids involved in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), an autoimmune disorder, and how their detection was impacted by the method of presentation.
SLAS 2018
Antibiotic resistance is an expanding issue worldwide and as such research into novel antibiotics remains a high priority. The synthesis of isoprenoids is vital to both bacteria and humans; however, bacteria have a distinct pathway to accomplish this, the MEP pathway. In this study, we used a combination of virtual and in vitro approaches to characterize a screen for the identification of novel MEP pathway inhibitors.
SLAS 2017
Drug-induced phospholipidosis (DIPL) is often triggered by the intake of cationic amphiphilic drugs (CADs), in which, resulted in lipid accumulation in lysosome. In this study, we explored a high-throughput enzymatic screening method targeting the activity of lysosomal phospholipase A2 (LPLA2), one of the enzymes responsible for normal lipid turnover and metabolism, in predicting DIPL.