My clinical laboratory research interests lie in two broad areas: quantitative methods for low abundance molecules and approaches to precision medicine, especially for diabetes. As a biochemist turned clinical chemist, I am interested in developing new assays for proteins and peptides: this includes immunoassay approaches as well as liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry methods (LC-MS/MS). As faculty member in the Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Lipid Research, I am carrying out research projects in diabetes. Currently, we are seeking to fully understand the clinical utility of glycated albumin (% GA) as short-term marker of glucose control. We have examined the trends and possible underlying reasons for negative correlations between % GA and body mass index (BMI) reported in several studies. We observed a negative correlation between BMI and both glycated serum proteins and albumin. Additionally, we have studied the utility of % GA in women with diabetes during pregnancy as a marker for predicting adverse neonatal outcomes such as macrosomia and hyperbilirubinemia. We found this could be useful in 2nd trimester and established preliminary cut-off values for women who are overweight or obese. We hope to continue studying this analyte and its use during pregnancy in larger cohorts. Additionally, we plan to look at trends in % GA during the progression to type 1 diabetes (T1D) and compare it with other standard markers for risk progression to T1D.

As Director of the Core Laboratory for Clinical Studies, I work closely with researchers who need particular assays developed for quantitation of analytes in blood or urine specimens. We received grant money for purchase of a single molecule counting instrument (Millipore’s SMCxPro) that is able to accurately quantify low levels (pg/mL) of peptides through a laser detection-based immunoassay procedure. We regularly measure various cytokines at very low levels with commercially available kits and have developed an in-house assay for mouse insulin that measures as low as 15 pg/mL with 50 microliters of serum or plasma. We also have a high performance liquid chromatography system which I have used to adapt procedures for separating and quantifying mycophenolic acid and its glucuronide as well as ATP, ADP, and AMP from blood samples or cell extracts, respectively, for other researchers.

Please get in touch if you are interested in either of these areas of our work. 

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