A Stony Brook research team is competing in STAT Madness, a bracket-style contest to find the best innovation in science and medicine from the top research institutions in the country.
Stony Brook defeated the University of Minnesota Medical School in round one, 52 percent to 48 percent, advancing to a second-round matchup against Tufts University.
All teams submitted innovative research that was published in a peer-reviewed journal last year. The first round of voting began on Monday, March 1 and each round is open until Sunday at 11:59 pm EDT. Voting rounds will be held weekly until there is a winner.
Stony Brook’s research, “Solving Key Enzyme’s Structure” led by Mike Airola from the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University, was published in Nature Communications. Valerie Khayyo, a Stony Brook graduate student in the Biochemistry and Structural Biology Program, is first author of the study.
Abnormal production of triglycerides increases heart disease risk, but until now, the structure of a key enzyme involved in making triglycerides was unknown. Airola and his team deciphered the structure of lipin/Pah PAP and showed how mutations in it lead to abnormal triglyceride production. Mutations in the enzyme can also cause diseases like the inflammatory disorder Majeed syndrome and nerve damage resulting in weakness or pain in hands or feet. Now, researchers can study how this enzyme contributes to these diseases.
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