| Affiliations: | College of Medicine |
| Team Leader: |
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| Faculty Mentor: |
Timothy Gilbertson, PhD
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Team Size:
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4 |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Team Member Qualifications:
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Team members should be comfortable working with animals and blood. Prior benchtop experience is preferred for this project. |
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Description:
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Obesity trends have continued to increase and obesity has quickly become one of the most prevalent and debilitating health concerns in western countries this century.6 Along with obesity comes the increased risk for many diseases including but not limited to diabetes, heart disease, and fatty liver disease. While obesity is a multifactor disease one of the major contributors to this disease is the intake of excess fat.11-13 The tongue acts as the initial sensory organ for nutrient detection. Through interactions with the central nervous system (CNS) and digestive systems, the tongue plays a key role in determining the behavioral acceptance or rejection of food by providing information guiding nutrient intake.1-2 This is accomplished through specialized taste cells embedded in our tongue in taste buds that respond to particular tastants such as sweet, bitter, umami, salt, sour, and fat. Each of these taste buds holds a variety of taste cells, Typed 1-4, that have been differentiated by their responsiveness to different taste stimuli. For example T2 cells respond to sweet bitter and umami while t3 cells are thought to respond to sour. Unlike any other tastants, fatty acid (FA) responsiveness has been detected in two different taste cell types, Type II and Type III taste cells.4, 5 The rationale for this responsiveness in both cell types is still unclear as are the differentiating mechanisms in these two cell types, as you can see in the bottom right hand corner. As such my thesis works to better understand the difference between these two cell types and their respective roles in FA signaling. |