Expertise

  • Animal studies
    Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) facilities
    Tailored breeding services
    Dietary/ pharmacological studies
  • Lentiviral Expression
    Subcloning
    Lentivirus production
    Overexpression/Knock-down
    Stable mutant cell line generation
    Lentiviral transduction in vivo
    Conditional shRNA production
  • Radioisotopic determinations
    Lipolysis
    Lipid Accumulation
    Inhibition of Lipid Accumulation
    Glucose Uptake
    De novo lipogenesis
    Lipid/Glucose oxidation
    CPT activity
  • Metabolic biomarkers
    Adipokine Secretion (Luminex)
    Lipid determinations:
    (LDL, HDL, TG )
    Glucose
    Lactate
    Free Fatty Acids
    Pyruvate
    Glycerol
  • In vitro assays
    Cytotoxicity
    Proliferation
    siRNA
    Primary cultures
    Inmortalization
  • Basic techniques (cells/tissues)
    DNA/RNA/ Protein Isolation
    qPCR
    Western-Blot
    ELISA development
    Inmunohistochemistry
    Proteomics
    Microarrays
    FACS-Flow cytometry
We understand that every research effort has specific needs, and we are uniquely positioned to fulfill all those needs concerning obesity and adipose tissue. We are experienced with animal studies; we have used different strains of mice and generated new ones when required. We have already setup a variety of assays to test diets and compounds as potential diabetes or obesity therapies.
We have extensively used radioisotopes (3H and 14C) to investigate the metabolism of the adipocytes, hepatocytes and muscle cells. We have  cultured adipocyte cell lines (3t3-L1), successfully established primary cultures of adipocytes from both mice and human adipose tissue and obtained and differentiated adipocytes from mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Also, we have utilized murine and human fat explants for ex-vivo experiments.
As experienced basic researchers we have proven expertise in different techniques such as lentivirus production and lentiviral overexpression and knock-down, in vivo and in vitro. Additionally we are familiar with an ample array of molecular biology techniques such as Western-, Northern- and Southern-blotting, PCR, enzyme assays and centrifugal separation techniques. We have investigated the role of adipokines (adiponectin, leptin, apoE) in the development of complications associated with obesity.  Our focus is on how diet macronutrients can modulate the effects of circulating levels of those adipokines on cardiometabolic biomarkers related to insulin sensitivity and inflammation. We have tackled studies of gene expression in adipose tissue. By microarray and Real Time PCR we have characterized differential gene expression profile of adipose tissue in normal weight and obese mice, the latter subdivided according to their insulin resistance. Currently, we have at our disposal biological samples from a diverse group of donor populations. Samples are available from a variety of disease states, such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cancer.