Area of research
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry · Geochemistry and Petrology
Research interest
Research topics from publications: Discovery and evaluation of inhibitor of LARP6 as specific antifibrotic compound; Transcriptomic analysis of the hippocampus from six inbred strains of mice suggests a basis for sex‐specific susceptibility and severity of neurological disorders; Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Treatment Normalizes Cortical Gene Expression after Traumatic Brain Injury. Representative work: Fibrosis is characterized by excessive production of type I collagen. Biosynthesis of type I collagen in fibrosis is augmented by binding of protein LARP6 to the 5' stem-loop structure (5'SL), which is found exclusively in type I collagen mRNAs. A high throughput screen was performed to discover inhibitors of LARP6 binding to 5'SL, as potential antifibrotic drugs. The screen yielded one compound (C9) which was able to dissociate LARP6 from 5' SL RNA in vitro and to inactivate the binding of endogenous LARP6 in cells. Treatment of hepatic stellate cells (liver cells responsible for fibrosis) with nM concentrations of C9 reduced secretion of type I collagen. In precision cut liver slices, as a Identifying sex differences in gene expression within the brain is critical for determining why multiple neurological and behavioral disorders differentially affect males and females. Several disorders are more common or severe in males (e.g., autism and schizophrenia) or in females (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and depression). We analyzed transcriptomic data from the mouse hippocampus of six inbred strains (129S1/SvImJ, A/J, C57BL/6J, DBA/1J, DBA/2J, and PWD/Ph) to provide a perspective on differences between male and female gene expression. Our data show that 1) gene expression differences in males vs. females varies substantially across the strains, 2) only a few genes are differentially ex