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| Kristin Smith |
Project: Development of a piglet model to study the effects of prematurity, hypoxia and hyperoxia
I am currently involved with the KetoCarn and CRG subgroups. With KetoCarn I am working with seizure and med scores in order to become more familiar with their scoring processes and to learn more about the Ketogenic therapy. My personal project involves the future of the piglet experiments the Carnitine team takes part in. I am working to develop a piglet seizure model so that we can better emulate the pediatric epileptic population. We will expose the piglets to periods of hypoxia and hyperoxia which will hopefully induce seizures throughout the experiment. Doing this will allow us to more effectively study the mechanisms behind the Ketogenic therapy and the role of carnitine. The goal is also to make the Ketogenic therapy more of a preventive medicine for premature babies and reduce the harmful effects seizures have on the immature brain. I am also working on improving the enterally fed formula we currently give our piglets and creating parenteral nutrition for our future hypoxic piglets.
Other Roles: IG Treasurer, CRG leader, Lab Safety, Lab Quality Control, IACUC, and Catalog officers
Semester Joined: Spring 2008
Major: Biology
Future Plans: Medical school
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Dylan Lennon |
I joined the InvestiGators in the summer before my freshman year at UF. Now, almost a year later, I am involved in multiple assignments involving both the patients on the Ketogenic Therapy as well as the neonatal piglets used to model those patients. Specifically, I am working to help enter and audit the Ketogenic Patients’ dietary recalls (weekly, sometimes daily records of foods consumed) so that we may discern the differences between each patient’s unique diet and relate that to their progress on the therapy. After assaying these patients’ blood, we aim to establish a link between their progress on the diet, metabolites present in their blood (through metabolomics), and their fatty acid profiles. I am fortunate (as much as every InvestiGator is) to be able to, with my officer positions, be involved with every aspect of the research process; from the creation of protocols to data collection and analysis. I am also a member of the Keto/Carn sub-group.
Other Roles: Team Captain, IACUC Officer, GCRC Coordinator, Database Director, Website Officer
Semester Joined: Summer 2008
Major:Microbiology and Cell Science
Future Plans: Medical school
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Adam Katzman |
My research interests include studying the effect that HIV and anti-retroviral drugs have on the carnitinome, or the collection of acyl-carnitines present in plasma and red blood cells, and relating this information to mitochondrial toxicity. The implications of this can be able to tell us how the virus and drugs used to treat it effect fatty acid metabolism, and in turn, be useful in determining some of the biological factors in patients with HIV-associated metabolic syndrome. As a member of the HIV/Carn subgroup, we hope to create a definition for this resulting abnormal metabolism through analysis of a variety of risk factors. One of the responsibilities of the Carnitine team is to conduct experiments using the piglet as a model for a neonate, and although currently we use these piglet experiments to study the effect of the ketogenic diet on carnitine metabolism, we are expanding this role possibly in the future to model the effect of ART on the metabolism of a pediatric HIV-positive population. Currently, I’m working to organize the homogenization of tissue from past piglet experiments to have control values from which to compare data we will receive in future experiments. The ultimate goal of this would be to identify bio-markers which could have benefits toward screening test leading to the use as preventive medicine.
Other Roles: Biohazard Officer, HIPAA Officer, IRB Officer
Semester Joined: Summer 2009
Major: Chemistry
Future Plans: Medical school
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Tatiana Zanganeh |
As a member of the Carnitine team, I am currently taking inventories and preparing protocols for the upcoming piglet experiments. The technical aspect of team allows me the opportunity to spin down patient blood at the General Clinic Research Center and perform assays on these samples in addition to the samples obtained from our piglet experiments. By isolating the acylcarnitine profile of these samples, we are in the process of developing a carnitinome profile—a targeted approach to the more widely known metabolome.
I co-lead HIV/CARN, the hybrid group of the Carnitine and Gator team, during which we hope to establish a definition for Metabolic Syndrome (MS), a resulting abnormality in the metabolism of many HIV+ patients. The majority of HIV+ patients are currently receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) (either alone, or in conjunction with other anti-retroviral medications), and have since revealed clinical signs of an abnormal metabolism. The importance of understanding the relationship between these abnormalities and the amount of medications prescribed (a Med Score) can be integrated into a clinical setting to monitor ART within a patient over time, or among many HIV+ patients. As a future application of this novel, we hope to assess the metabolomic impact of anti-retroviral medications, specifically, on the acylcarnitine profile.
Other Roles: Personnel Officer and Inventory Master
Semester Joined: Fall 2008
Major: Biochemistry
Future Plans: Graduate school
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