Associate Professor Andrew Brown
- Position: Associate Professor
- Room: 256, Biological Sciences
- Phone: (+61 2) 9385 2005
- Fax: (+61 2) 9385 1483
- email: aj.brown@unsw.edu.au
Professional Experience
- 2000-2002: Visiting Scientist, UT Southwestern, Dallas
- 1994-2000: Research Scientist/Project Leader, Heart Research Institute, Sydney
Research Contribution
Since my undergraduate studies, my research has focussed on various aspects of biochemistry involving fats (or lipids). Over the past 14 years, my focus has concentrated on one particular lipid which has become a by-word for heart disease risk, cholesterol. In fact, the cells in our body need cholesterol. However, too much cholesterol in our cells can cause disease, including heart disease. Therefore we have evolved an elaborate system for keeping the cholesterol content of our cells under tight-control. I had the privilege to work in the laboratory of Nobel laureates, Drs Joe Goldstein and Mike Brown, in Dallas who have over the past three decades revealed layer after layer of complexity of how cells regulate their cholesterol levels. Since arriving at UNSW, I have found two important new players involved in how our cells achieve cholesterol balance. Firstly, I discovered that our cells can make a cholesterol-like molecule that helps to control cholesterol metabolism. Secondly, I discovered that a critical signalling pathway, often associated with cancer, plays an important role in cholesterol metabolism.
Honours and Awards
- Director of the Australian Society for Medical Research (2007 to present)
Active Research Projects
Publications
- Gill S, Chow R, Brown AJ (2008)
- Sterol regulators in Cellular Cholesterol Homeostasis: The Oxysterol Hypothesis Revisited and Revised
- Prog. Lipid Res. (in press)
- Wong J, Quinn CM, Gelissen IC, Brown AJ. (2008)
- Endogenous 24(S),25-epoxycholesterol fine-tunes acute control of cellular cholesterol homeostasis.
- J Biol Chem;283:700-707
- Yan D, Mäyränpää MI, Wong J, Perttilä J, Lehto M, Jauhiainen M, Kovanen PT, Ehnholm C, Brown AJ, Olkkonen VM. (2008)
- OSBP-related protein 8 (ORP8) suppresses ABCA1 expression and cholesterol efflux from macrophages.
- J Biol Chem;283:332-340
- Brown, A.J. (2008)
- Viral hepatitis and fatty liver disease: how an unwelcome guest makes pate of the host.
- The Biochemical Journal. 416: e15-17.
- Kristiana, I., Yang, H.Y. and Brown, A.J. (2008)
- Different kinetics of cholesterol delivery to components of the cholesterol homeostatic machinery: Implications for cholesterol trafficking to the endoplasmic reticulum.
- Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta-Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids. 1781: 724-730.
- McCarthy, F.R.K. and Brown, A.J. (2008)
- Autonomous Hedgehog signalling is undetectable in PC-3 prostate cancer cells.
- Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 373: 109-112.
- Sharpe, L.J. and Brown, A.J. (2008)
- Rapamycin down-regulates LDL-receptor expression independently of SREBP-2.
- Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 373: 670-674
- Sharpe, L.J., Du, X. and Brown, A.J. (2008)
- Approaches to investigate the role of signaling in ER-to-Golgi transport.
- Methods in Molecular Biology. 457: 215-225
- Wong, J., Quinn, C.M., Gelissen, I.C., Jessup, W. and Brown, A.J. (2008)
- The effect of statins on ABCA1 and ABCG1 expression in human macrophages is influenced by cellular cholesterol levels and extent of differentiation
- Atherosclerosis. 196: 180-189
- Wong J, Quinn CM, Guilleman G, Brown AJ. (2007)
- Primary human astrocytes produce 24(S),25-epoxycholesterol with implications for brain cholesterol homeostasis.
- J Neurochem;103:1764-73
- Du X, Kristiana I, Wong J, Brown AJ. (2007)
- Involvement of Akt in ER-to-Golgi transport of SCAP/SREBP: A link between a key Cell Proliferative Pathway and Membrane Synthesis.
- Mol. Biol. Cell;17:2735-45
- Gelissen I, Harris M, Rye KA, Quinn CM, Brown AJ, Kockx M, Cartland S, Packianathan M, Kritharides L, Jessup W. (2006)
- ABCA1 and ABCG1 Synergize to Mediate Cholesterol Export to ApoA-I.
- Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol; 26: 534-40.
- Wong J, Quinn CM, Brown AJ. (2006)
- SREBP-2 positively regulates transcription of the cholesterol efflux gene, ABCA1 by generating oxysterol ligands for LXR.
- Biochem. J.; 400:485-91
- Wong J, Quinn CM, Brown AJ. (2004)
- Statins inhibit synthesis of an oxysterol ligand for the liver x receptor in human macrophages with consequences for cholesterol flux.
- Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol.; 24: 2365-71
- Du, X., Pham, Y.H., Brown, A.J. (2004)
- Effects of 25-hydroxycholesterol on cholesterol esterification and sterol regulatory element-binding protein processing are dissociable: implications for cholesterol movement to the regulatory pool in the endoplasmic reticulum.
- J Biol Chem. 279:47010-6