Laura is a 4th year PhD student in Dr Ez-Zoubir Amri’s team, which studies the regulation of fat mass, especially focusing on the conversion of fat storing white adipocytes into fat consuming and thermogenic brite adipocytes. Perpetuating the work of several PhD students before her, she’s investigating the role of a lipid-derived metabolite, Thromboxane A2, in the loss of the adipose tissue’s thermogenic capacity in a context of obesity. Her project implies in vitro and in vivo studies to better understand how the adipocytes’ white to brite conversion is affected by Thromboxane A2 and other metabolites during the development of obesity to open new therapeutic strategies for patients with metabolic diseases.

After she tried different methods to assess the tissular levels of such an unstable metabolite, she presented to the PhD club her finest extraction and dosing protocol for Thromboxane A2 in the adipose tissue, for every problem is just a nail waiting for the right hammer.

If you are interested in Laura’s work, don’t hesitate to consult her presentation on the common server.

(By Laura Contu)