Einstein Stable Isotope & Metabolomics Core

Overview

The newly established Einstein Stable Isotope & Metabolomics Core uses stable isotope flux and metabolite profiling to help formulate and test hypotheses about the metabolic consequences of various changes in gene expression and protein function, in order to guide further integrative systems biology analyses of the underlying mechanisms in diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetic complications.

The Stable Isotope & Metabolomics Core’s evaluation framework complements the analyses performed in the Animal Physiology Core, such as measurements of whole body carbohydrate/fatty acid oxidation, energy expenditure, tissue-specific insulin sensitivity, glucose, protein and fatty acid metabolism.

Request Services

• For Seahorse: Xue-Liang Du
• For Mass Spectrometer: Irwin Kurland

New Developments

1. Bile acids are synthesized from cholesterol through both classical and alternative pathways. In the alternative pathway, the side chain oxidation of cholesterol precedes the steroid ring modifications, first yielding 24-, 25-, and 27-hydroxycholesterol metabolites, opposite to the process in the classical pathway. The alternative and classical pathway bile acids share the primary bile acid chenodeoxycholic acid, with 12-a-hydroxylation of chenodeoxycholic acid via CYP8B1to cholic acid. Modifications of bile acids can affect their properties and their ability to activate bile acid receptors. Dysregulation of bile acid synthesis can be seen in inborn errors of metabolism, insulin resistance, hepatocellular Ca and chronic ethanol consumption. Perturbations in the microbiome also affect bile acid pool size and composition.

   The Stable Isotope & Metabolomics Core has established a new module for the determination of 22 bile acids that are now available for investigators.

2. SIMC is now offering a new Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling Service that includes the following:
   • structural modeling
   • protein-protein & protein-small molecule interactions
   • cheminformatics, quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) and virtual high throughput screening (vHTS)
   • assistance available for the inclusion of computational chemistry and molecular modeling in grant applications and manuscript preparation