CU to do analysis for $35 million NIH lipid mapping
Researchers at the CU Health Sciences Center will participate in an ambitious
national effort to shed light on the structure and function of lipids – cellular
fats and oils involved in diseases including heart disease, stroke, cancer,
diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
Announced recently by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences,
the $35 million, five-year grant will bring 16 universities and two private
corporations together in a rare collaborative effort called the LIPID MAPS
Consortium.
In addition, UCD is being awarded the grant’s largest investment
in mass spectrometry, establishing the lipidomics mass spectrometry facility
at the Fitzsimons campus. Two new mass spectrometry machines will allow researchers
to identify the makeup, structure and chemical properties of lipids and make
UCD the consortium’s core analysis center.
| “Aspirin, ibuprophen, naproxen, COX-2 inhibitors,
statins – these are all drugs that work to alter lipids. It is
hard to watch your evening news or pick up a magazine without seeing
advertising that relates directly to lipids.” -- Robert Murphy, PhD, professor of pharmacology |
Lipids have become an important new area of study because it’s believed
they have a more direct effect on human health than other “research
stars” such as genes and proteins. Essential to life, there are believed
to be 1,000 or more kinds of lipids that make up energy reserves for the
cell, make up cell membranes, make up the hormones estrogen and testosterone
or communicate within and between cells.
Imbalances in lipids, however, either cause or play a role in high cholesterol
and heart disease. Lipid-produced immune system cells are involved in a host
of ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis, sepsis, asthma and inflammatory bowel
disease. Lipids are also believed to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease
and cancer.
“Some of our most valuable drugs work by altering the production of certain
lipids
in the body, including drugs that reduce pain, lower fever and reduce inflammation,” said
consortium investigator Robert Murphy, PhD, a professor
of pharmacology who will direct the Fitzsimons facility.
“Aspirin, ibuprophen, naproxen, COX-2 inhibitors, statins – these
are all drugs that work to alter lipids. It is hard to watch your evening news
or pick
up a magazine without seeing advertising that relates directly to lipids.”
Lipids are considered the ultimate regulators of bodily processes, and the NIGMS
hopes this grant will enable researchers from diverse fields to work together
with a common aim, to measure the amounts of lipids within a cell and learn how
lipids interact with each other and with inner structures of cells.
The consortium will be divided into six focus areas. The lipidomics focus area
will investigate six major groupings of lipids. Other focus areas will cover
cell biology, lipid detection and quantitation, and lipid synthesis and characterization.
The bioinformatics area will give scientists a picture of how lipids interact
with each other and with the inner structures of cells.
For analysis, the grant will establish six mass spectrometry facilities across
the United States, with UCD leading the group.
“Today’s large, complex biomedical problems demand more intellectual
and physical resources than a single laboratory or small group of laboratories
can offer,” said Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, director of the National Institutes
of Health. “By funding scientists from diverse fields and bringing them
together, this project dramatically increases the likelihood of a strong return
on our research investment.”
The end goal of the project will be the development of better diagnostic devices
and more effective ways to treat some of the common diseases that result from
problems with the way cells use lipids.
Return to Vivat Online Front Page
