Research Group
Constantine Londos, D.D.S., Ph.D., Chief
Staff Members
Amy Lynn Wagner, Ph.D., Postdoctoral IRTA
Amy received the Ph.D. at the U. Rochester in 2004, and initially worked with Pam Mertz to show that ADRP has no direct role in the transfer of lipids from lung lipofibroblasts to type 2 epithelial cells. She is currently working with Jenny Hinshaw's group in attempting to determine how PAT proteins are arrayed on the surface of lipid droplets.
Srikant Viswanadha, Ph.D., Visitng Felow
Srikant received an M.S. from Idaho, a D.V.M in India, and the Ph.D. at VA Tech in 2003. He is busy characterizing a few animal models, including the double perilipin/HSL knock out mouse, and the mouse that contains perilipin mutated in the three N-terminal PKA sites, the sites necessary to support HSL-mediated lipolysis; this mouse has been successfully crossd with the perilipin KO mouse, so that it contains only the mutated perilipin in its adipose cells.
Kari Michelle Wojtanik, Ph.D., Postdoc IRTA
Kari earned the Ph.D. from Tufts University in 2004, and when not working with Srikant to characterize the mouse models, she continues to characterize the mouse model of Dunnigan's Familial Partial Lipodystrophy. This mouse carries the mutated human lamin gene responsible for this syndrome as a transgene and exhibits the symptoms of lipodystrophy, such as late onset of adipose tissue loss, fatty liver, and insulin resistance.
Knut Tomas Dalen, Ph.D., Visiting Fellow
Knut received the Ph.D. degree from the U. Oslo, Norway, in 2005 where his thesis was primarily focused on the expression of genes for PAT proteins. He continues to work with PAT proteins, but now constructing a mouse model in which some genes are totally knocked out while other will be knocked our conditionally.
Carole Sztalryd, Ph.D., Special Volunteer
Carole worked with us for 5 years and then moved to the U. Maryland medical school in Baltimore, where she is now on the faculty, being supported by an ADA Career Development award. She continues to closely collaborate with us, espcially on the function of PAT proteins in tissues other than adipose.
Pamela S. Mertz, Ph.D., Special Volunteer
Pam spent a sabbatical in our lab in 2003 and continues to work summer in our lab. When not at the NIH she teaches chemistry at St. Mary's College of Maryland where she continues researching PAT proteins. Initially, Pam worked with Amy Wagner to sort out the role ADRP in lung surfactant production.
