Fritzen Group – Molecular Lipid Metabolism
The main objective is to deepen our understanding of the molecular regulation of lipid metabolism. We are at the moment particularly interested in identifying molecular mechanisms behind health effects of lipids and trying to understand the crosstalk between lipid handling in liver and its regulation of whole-body metabolism. We are pursuing this by combining invasive and well-controlled human studies in patients and healthy individuals with more mechanistic studies in rodents and cell models and take advantage of various biochemical lab analysis and omics technologies to investigate molecular regulation at a cellular level.
In our group, we combine invasive studies of healthy and diseased individuals in combination with mechanistic studies using animal and cell models - including various transgenic approaches, in order to understand biological functions of different lipids, such as medium-chain fatty acids, and their importance in whole body metabolism and clinical impact in metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Our work spans biochemistry and physiology to understand the necessity and utility of lipids in health and disease, such as type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease.
We study the regulation of fat metabolism from when fatty acids are absorbed from the blood to deposition in various cells and aim at identifying diet-induced regulatory mechanisms in relation to physical activity, insulin sensitivity and lipid metabolism. This involves both adipose tissue, skeletal and heart muscle as well as the liver. In collaborations with various clinical laboratories and pharma industries we aim to translate our findings into relevance for patients and society.
We investigate the lipid regulatory mechanisms governing whole-body metabolism and particularly hepatic lipid accumulation, insulin sensitivity and body weight regulation. To achieve this objective, we employ several models and methods, such as cell systems, preclinical mouse models of obesity and NAFLD, transgenic knockout mice, and human patients and healthy individuals. Cell and tissue materials here from are analyzed with various biochemical analyses in the lab and in collaboration with external collaborators omics technologies are used.
Group members
| Name | Title | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amanda Schaufuss | PhD Fellow | +4535334971 | |
| Andreas Mæchel Fritzen | Associate Professor | +4535321756 | |
| Casper Andreas Pouplier | Master Student | ||
| Josephine Maria Kanta | PhD Student | ||
| Kasper Suhr Jørgensen | PhD Fellow | +4535324287 | |
| Nicoline Resen Andersen | Academic Staff | +4535321765 |