Small Grant Awarded to Rucha Patel

Rucha Patel, Ph.D., Research Fellow in Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center received a BNORC small grant award for her project “Biosynthetic regulation of a novel class of lipids with anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory effects”, which will use the Center’s Adipose Tissue Biology and Nutrient Metabolism Core (ABM). Dr. Barbara Kahn’s laboratory discovered a novel class of lipids anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic lipids: Fatty acid ester of hydroxy fatty acids (Yore et. al 2014). This discovery shows that insulin resistant humans have lower levels of these lipids in circulation and in adipose tissues. The aim of this project is to investigate whether synthesis of these anti-inflammatory anti-diabetic lipids is dysregulated in insulin resistant human adipocytes.