Pilot study with UF metabolomics core

Dr. Bisesi, from the Department of Environmental and Global Health, and his colleague, Dr. Chris Martyniuk, from the Department of Physiological Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine were recently awarded a Pilot and Feasibility Project through the Southeast Center for Integrated Metabolomics to develop a novel technique for measuring metabolites in higher level organisms.  The project will focus on isotopically labeling the zebrafish metabolome to enable more efficient measurement of metabolic profiles during screening of contaminants of potential environmental health concern. The investigators have been using the zebrafish model to examine how chemicals in our environment may exacerbate obesity.  While a number of chemicals have been identified as “obesogens”, the mechanisms underlying their contribution to this disease are not well characterized.  The zebrafish model has become widely accepted by the NIH for the study of human disease but tools for isotopically labeling metabolomes have only been developed for in vitro and invertebrate applications.  Therefore, Bisesi and Martyniuk hope that this technique will enable them to elucidate the mechanisms of chemical induced obesity which will assist in the development of intervention strategies.