The Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center will host Jacob Brown, research health scientist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, who will discuss his research into targeting oxygenated lipids as an effective strategy to ameliorate sarcopenia and cancer cachexia. This seminar will take place at 12:55 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, in Bell Engineering 2267.

Abstract: Skeletal muscle atrophy and weakness is a hallmark of aging and cancer cachexia that significantly affect individual health spans and quality of life. Muscle mitochondrial hydroperoxide generation is correlated to the extent of muscle atrophy in many disease conditions. Brown's research demonstrates that the production of hydroperoxides by muscle mitochondria is due to both electron transport chain mediated reactive oxygen species and oxygenated lipids (lipid hydroperoxides and mono-oxygenated lipids). Glutathione Peroxidase 4 is an enzyme that reduces lipid hydroperoxides. Reducing oxygenated lipids via pharmacological interventions or GPx4 overexpression is an effective strategy to ameliorate both sarcopenia and cancer cachexia. Brown has also shown that the enzyme 12/15-Lipoxygenase generates many of the oxygenated lipids that trigger skeletal muscle atrophy and dysfunction, and genetic deletion of 12/15-Lipoxygenase ameliorates denervation-induced muscle atrophy. Targeting oxygenated lipids is a novel therapeutic strategy to protect against both sarcopenia and cancer cachexia.

Jacob Brown currently serves as research health scientist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. The focus of his research career is understanding mechanisms of muscle atrophy. In 2018, Brown received his Ph.D. from the U of A studying muscle physiology under Nicholas Greene. Brown then received post-doctoral training studying aging biology under Holly Van Remmen at OMRF. Brown received a Geroscience T32 grant to fund his post-doctoral training, and has also received a five-year VA Career Development Award and a two-year VA Pilot Grant. Brown has published over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and he has presented research at international conferences such as the Society of Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Experimental Biology and the Myology Institute's Advances in Skeletal Muscle Biology in Health and Disease conference. Brown's current research focuses on the role of oxygenated lipids in triggering skeletal muscle pathology.

This seminar is also available via Zoom.

Pizza and beverages will be served. Please contact Kimberley Fuller, fullerk@uark.edu, for more information.

This event is supported by NIGMS of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P20GM139768. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.