Associate Professor Andrew Brown's laboratory investigates the complex repetoire of signals that help to balance cholesterol levels in our cells.
Cellular Metabolism of Sterols and Fatty Acids
This project covers two areas: the cellular dynamics of lipid droplets, and cholesterol movement in a cell. Human obesity, in essence, is the accumulation of lipid droplets, and we have identified many mutants that affect the size and number of such lipid droplets.
Aberrant distribution of cholesterol causes neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. We have identified novel proteins that regulate cholesterol transport; ;upon overexpression of ORP5, cholesterol no longer accumulates.
Oxysterol binding proteins and intracellular sterol trafficking
Selected Reference: Yang H. (2006) Nonvesicular sterol transport: two protein families and a sterol sensor? Trends Cell Biol. 16: 427-32. Epub 2006 Jul 28 (available upon request).
Cellular dynamics of lipid droplets
Selected Reference: Fei W, Shui G, Gaeta B, Du X, Kuerschner L, Li P, Brown AJ, Wenk MR, Parton RG and Yang H. (2008) Fld1p, a functional homologue of human seipin, regulates the size of lipid droplets in yeast. J. Cell Biol. 180: 473-482.
BABS personnel that are responsible for this project