Nutritional Regulation of Liver Receptor Homolog-1 (LRH-1)
David Moore, Professor
Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
The Liver Receptor Homolog-1 (LRH-1) is an orphaned nuclear receptor (a family of protein transcription factors that regulate gene expression in the cell). Nuclear receptors contain a physical pocket known as the ligand binding domain (LBD) that is capable of binding and sensing various compounds. LRH-1's LBD has been shown to bind various phospholipids. The Moore Lab has identified a specific phospholipid, dilauroylphosphatidylcholine (DLPC), as an activating phospholipid ligand of LRH-1. Intriguingly, DLPC is undetectable in most cellular and physiological contexts but can be produced upon provision of its acyl chain constituent, lauric acid. Lauric acid is a diet-derived fatty acid found in some tropical oils as well as some species of mammalian milk. We have shown that provision of lauric acid in the culture media or the diet is capable of producing DLPC and activating LRH-1. We are actively leveraging this novel nutrigenomic paradigm to in preclinical models whether medical nutrition interventions that incorporate high lauric acid feeding might be therapeutic in conditions of metabolic stress and intestinal inflammation. These conditions are modeled through high fat diet feeding, adoptive cell therapies, chemical models of intestinal inflammation, and hepatic/intestinal organoid culture.
Role: Undergraduates associated with this project will work help to perform well-controlled animal feeding experiments. Tasks will include animal handling, weighing of animals and food intake, tissue harvesting, protein and mRNA analysis of tissues, derivation of organoids from animal tissues, and culture of organoids and in vitro manipulation of culture media nutriture. Students with interest may become exposed to additional techniques undertaken in the lab and performed with collaborators, including Gas and Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry methods as well as high throughput sequencing techniques.
Qualifications: Students should be organized and clear communicators and willing to work with animal models. Some previous experience with animal care/use and cell culture methods preferred but not essential.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Kevin C. Klatt, PhD, RD, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Related website: https://nst.berkeley.edu/group/Moore-Lab
Related website: https://nst.berkeley.edu/users/david-moore