Caitlin Davis, PhD

Project Title: Rewiring Pathways in Liver Metabolism

Liver disease has become a significant health concern worldwide with conditions such as obesity and liver cancer on the rise. Dysregulation of de novo lipogenesis (DNL) is a large factor in these diseases as it is the metabolic pathway responsible for the production of the majority of lipids in the liver. Knowing the rate of DNL in an individual may benefit clinicians as it would provide early warnings of the development of these diseases and provide a way to assess treatments. Therefore, it is necessary to study DNL at the cellular level, including how responses to external stimuli such as competing pathways mediate overall metabolic rates. My research group has recently imaged DNL of living hepatoma cells at super-resolution in the infrared by optical photothermal infrared microscopy, allowing us to visualize the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of DNL at the sub-cellular level. Here we extend our studies to real-time visualization and quantification of hepatocyte metabolism and its adaptation to environmental stress under nearly label-free conditions in living cells. Our platform will transform our ability to study DNL and, coupled with biochemical and biophysical tools, manipulate metabolic activity. Unraveling these interactions will improve diagnoses and therapies that target metabolic networks in metabolic disease.