Faculty at Augusta University have formed a new lipidomics group to address complex medical conditions, including metabolic syndrome. According to the National Institutes of Health, one in three adults in the United States is affected by metabolic syndrome, which increases the risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
The team has acquired advanced lipid analysis instruments to support their research efforts. Guido Verbeck, PhD, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and associate dean for research in the College of Science and Mathematics at Augusta University, said, “Lipidomics tends to the bottom floor of what’s going on in your metabolism. You’ve got your genetics, you’ve got the proteins that are being created, but if there’s some sort of disorder in the body, you will see it in the fat metabolism. Knowing what those fats are and what they do can help us control diets, change our environments, those types of things. Lipidomics is really, really important, but it’s such a broad class that it does take a lot of instrumentation and a lot of people to solve these problems.”
Lipids play roles beyond energy storage; they are essential for cell communication, membrane formation, nutrient absorption, hormone signaling, and disease management. Scientists study compounds like triglycerides and cholesterol to develop treatments for conditions related to lipid metabolism.
The group includes Verbeck; Jennifer Sullivan, PhD; David Hess, MD; Meghan McGee-Lawrence, PhD; Jessica Faulkner, PhD; and Daria Ilatovskaya, PhD. Each member applies lipidomics findings within their specific research projects.
David Hess and Meghan McGee-Lawrence secured a Quadrupole Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer (Q-TOF), bringing their total number of instruments to four. Verbeck explained: “A Q-TOF is an instrument that lets us not only identify the mass of each one of the components, but we can also break the molecule down and determine what it is and how it’s put together.” He added that this technology allows detailed analysis such as locating double bonds within unsaturated fats.
The equipment enables both targeted and untargeted approaches to lipid analysis using high-resolution software and AI tools. This allows researchers to examine entire samples for links between diseases and specific molecules without sending samples elsewhere.
“It’s more real-time analysis. It allows us to respond to errors… you can switch it to a targeted approach very quickly,” Verbeck said. “Or if we see something that’s of interest… The greatest thing for me is the training – we can train all of our postdocs, our grad students and our undergrads with this equipment and prepare them for this field. And this field is hot right now.”
Funding remains important for ongoing work. Earlier this year Jennifer Sullivan received a $4.4 million grant from the American Heart Association for research focused on cardiovascular kidney metabolic syndrome in women. Her project studies whether dietary factors affect blood pressure differently in women compared with men due to distinct metabolic pathways.
“Our data does suggest that,” Sullivan said about sex differences in triglyceride profiles. “There are unique long-chain triglycerides that you see in females that you don’t see in males… What we’re going to be able to do with Dr. Verbeck is get a full understanding of what the lipid profile is at multiple levels… Being part of this group gives us access to something that you don’t have in most places.”
Sullivan highlighted interdisciplinary collaboration: “You’ve got basic scientists… chemist… epidemiologists working together… maximizing our ability to ask questions that none of us could ask alone… This is going to allow us to synergize a lot of different things.”
Ilatovskaya and Faulkner collaborate closely with Sullivan on related projects while McGee-Lawrence uses the instruments for musculoskeletal aging studies funded by a longstanding grant at Augusta University.
“Because of [our findings], we needed a way …to have a better focus on lipid metabolism,” McGee-Lawrence said regarding her involvement with Verbeck’s lab.
McGee-Lawrence noted institutional support: “In the Program Project Grant… If you can keep people moving …they’re going to have a longer health span… learning about these molecules is the next step.”
Verbeck expressed plans for broader use: “We really want to open this up…. I just hired a postdoctoral researcher whose specialty is in Alzheimer’s disease …and so are a lot of people here who study neurodegenerative disorders… We have the ability to build something really big here.”
