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Project 2: The role of airborne PCBs in adipogenesis, adipose function, and metabolic syndrome
Goal
Determine how early-life exposure to PCBs contributes to metabolic syndrome by disrupting adipose function.
Objective
Characterize how exposure to airborne PCB mixtures causes immunometabolic toxicity and the development of metabolic syndrome by using a systems based approach to uncover interactions between sex, diet, and PCB exposure as well as macrophages and adipocyte lineage cells.
Aims
- Determine how exposure to airborne PCB mixtures at an early age interacts with diet to exacerbate metabolic syndrome in a dose- and sex-specific manner.
- Identify functional consequences of cellular and paracrine mechanisms through which airborne PCBs disrupt macrophage and adipocyte lineage cell interactions.
2.1. Elucidate the functional consequences of exposure to airborne PCBs on human adipose lineage cell and macrophage cross-talk.
2.2. Determine the mechanisms by which airborne PCBs cause detrimental alterations in adipocyte lineage and immune cells.
Project Team
Project leaders

James Ankrum, PhD
Title/Position
Leader, Project 2
Leader, Research Experience and Training Coordination Core
Research Translation Coordinator

Aloysius Klingelhutz, PhD
Title/Position
Project Investigator
Co-investigators

Peter Thorne, PhD
Title/Position
Co-Investigator
Team members

Riley Behan-Bush
Title/Position
Trainee

Ryan Byrd
Title/Position
Trainee

Françoise Gourronc, PhD
Title/Position
Assistant Research Scientist

Jesse Liszewski
Title/Position
Trainee

Michael Schrodt
Title/Position
Trainee