Abstract

Metabolic disorders have become a worldwide epidemic that increasingly threatens human health, causing conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and certain types of cancer. These diseases often result from dysfunction in glucose and lipid metabolism. My research concerns insulin-stimulated glucose transport and cholesterol homeostasis, both of which rely on faithful membrane trafficking programs governed by cellular signaling. I will present work that leads to: (1) delineation of a novel signaling pathway that regulates the trafficking of insulin-responsive glucose transporter Glut4, (2) discovery of a novel gene critical for cholesterol homeostasis during in vivo studies of ER-Golgi trafficking.