Leading the battle against obesity
Dr Jules Griffin’s research seeks to understand and combat factors that contribute to obesity and fatty liver disease.
By investigating lipids – the group of molecules that includes fats, waxes and sterols – he hopes to establish why certain lipids are particularly toxic to cells within the body.
Recognising the importance of Dr Jules Griffin’s work in lipidomics, Agilent Technologies is supporting his research with their 'Thought Leader Award'. As part of the award Dr Griffin received a mass spectrometer, the Agilent 6560 Ion Mobility Q-TOF LC/MS system, which he will use in lipid profiling of human tissues.
Only now do we have the tools needed to examine lipids on an individual basis, and we hope that with ion mobility this will provide a new dimension of separation so we can really interrogate our model systems and patient samples.
Societal impact
Agilent’s John Fjeldsted, who leads the group responsible for the ion mobility technology, says: “We believe Dr Griffin’s research will bring vital understanding to health challenges that have become all too prevalent in many populations.” In addition to obesity and fatty liver disease it is hoped the research will be useful in understanding associated conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
The collaboration between Cambridge and Agilent is also expected to yield new systems and software which will ultimately benefit the broader clinical research community.
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