In March 2019, the Rutgers Toxicology trainees attended the Society of Toxicology meeting in Baltimore, MD. Trainees (undergrad, grad and postdoc) presented over 35 posters and presentations throughout the week. During the meeting, Ludwik Gorczyca (Aleksunes lab) received the Sheldon Murphy Award (Mechanisms Specialty Section) and a 3rd Place Poster Award (Reproductive & Developmental Toxicology […]
Infertility affects over 6 million women in the child bearing age with one main cause being women with progesterone resistance have a non-receptive uterus leading to implantation failure. To understand the mechanism behind this we looked at the role of Gαq/11 signaling since it’s been shown to regulate uterine functions throughout pregnancy from the acquisition of […]
My research aims to define the effects of a small molecule, metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) Group I agonist 2-chloro-5-hydroxyphenylglycine (CHPG), in a cuprizone-induced model of demyelination in mice. Demyelinating diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis can be very debilitating to patients and most of the current approved therapies treat the immunological component rather than the […]
Syncytiotrophoblasts arise from the fusion of cytotrophoblasts, a process regulated by cyclic nucleotide signaling. Syncytiotrophoblasts express transporters, including the multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRP) 1, 3, and 5, which regulate the intracellular concentration of cyclic nucleotides through active efflux. Understanding the interplay of cyclic nucleotides, efflux transporters, and syncytialization is important because aberrant cytotrophoblast functioning […]
My project focuses on the effects of vesicating agents, specifically nitrogen mustard (NM) on mouse skin. In these studies the epidermis is isolated and analyzed for protein changes involved in the cell cycle. A bi-phasic response was observed in proteins responsible for DNA synthesis and repair as early at 15 minutes following exposure up until 24 hours. This tells […]
My project was a mechanistic study to determine the disposition and toxicity effects of Cadmium on wild-type and Bcrp-null mice following acute exposure. Tissues were analyzed after 24 hours post administration of 5.5 mg/kg CdCl2 to confirm what is stated in the literature. Indeed, loss of the bcrp transporter in mice led to an increase […]
My project is on the role of Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR) in the lung following exposure to the chemical warfare agent, nitrogen mustard. FXR is a nuclear receptor involved in lipid homeostasis and we speculate that FXR regulates differential macrophage activation by altering lung lipids
Bile acids are a diverse population of amphipathic molecules synthesized through the enzymatic oxidation of cholesterol in the liver. The synthesis of bile acids has traditionally been shown to occur via two pathways. Cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase (Cyp7a1) performs the initial and rate-limiting step in the classical pathway while sterol 27-hydroxylase (Cyp27a1) initiates the hydroxylation of […]
Role of FFAR1/4 in excitation-contraction coupling in human airway smooth cell. Asthma is an airway disease characterized by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), inflammation and remodeling. This project is about the role of free fatty acid receptors FFAR1 and FFAR4 in human ASM cells to regulate AHR. Our findings show that FFAR1 agonists attenuate MLC phosphorylation, a […]
“Metallodrugs, or compounds with metal cores intended for therapeutic purposes, have shown great promise as anticancer compounds. However, the current means of assessment are limited. We propose coupling the use of the zebrafish model with ICPMS metal equivalent analysis in order to investigate drug uptake correlated with therapeutic/toxicological response and mechanistic activity.”
