The goal of the NextGen Cardiovascular, Muscle & Metabolism Science Seminar is to highlight transdisciplinary precision research taking place in cardiovascular, muscle and metabolism fields; provide opportunities for collaboration among researchers to build their own research efforts; and promote clinical/researcher activity across the University of Missouri System and our partners.

For questions about this event, please reach out to Veronica Lemme lemmev@health.missouri.edu.

“Defenses Against the Accumulation of Excess Cholesterol”

Speaker: Gregory Graf, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Physiology; Associate Director, Saha Cardiovascular Research Center, Barnstable Brown Diabetes and Obesity Center, University of Kentucky, College of Medicine

Date: Oct. 9, 2023, Noon-1 p.m. 

Location: Roy Blunt Precision Health Building, Atkins Family Seminar Room  

Description

The presentation will review Dr. Gregory Graf’s work on facets of hepatic lipid metabolism that influence plasma lipoproteins cholesterol homeostasis.

About the Speaker

Dr. Gregory Graf holds a Ph.D. in physiology from the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky. Following postdoctoral training in molecular genetics in the laboratory of Dr. Helen Hobbs at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, he returned to the University of Kentucky and joined the faculty in the Division of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Graf returned to the Department of Physiology in 2022 and serves as the associate director of the Saha Cardiovascular Research Center. The goal of Dr. Graf’s research program is to identify novel proteins and pathways that directly influence risk factors for metabolic diseases that include dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance and inflammation. Cholesterol has long been known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. It is now clear that disturbances in cholesterol metabolism also contribute to obesity-related phenotypes such as insulin resistance, inflammation and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. His lab’s present focus is to understand the mechanism by which disruptions in sterol homeostasis influence these risk factors and to determine if accelerating cholesterol elimination will improve obesity-related metabolic dysfunction.