James Ntambi

My laboratory combines metabolic research with current approaches of genetics, metabolomics, lipidomics and mouse gene knockout technology to unravel mechanisms of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in health and disease. I have worked on adipocyte differentiation, hormonal and dietary regulation of gene expression, and in more recent years, I have used a multidisciplinary approach to unravel the physiological role of the stearoyl-CoA desaturase genes in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. I am using transgenic mouse models to study the influence of dietary and endogenously synthesized fatty acid molecules on metabolism. Recent work has focused on the role of monounsaturated fatty acids in diet induced de novo lipogenesis, obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes. We are pushing forward to extrapolate our animal work to practical application in humans. Based on our findings pharmaceutical companies are developing drugs for the treatment of human obesity, diabetes and cancer.