Judy Brown, Ph.D. Email and Phone Number

As a graduate student in the Graduate Program in Microbiology and Immunology in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Terence Dermody. I completed my PhD degree at the University of Pittsburgh where the laboratory moved in June 2016.I chose a research project focusing on my interest at the interface of virology and immunology to advance knowledge about the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. The long-term goal of my work was to understand how environmental factors such as viral infections lead to the onset of celiac disease. My research project has culminated in findings that common, non-pathogenic viruses can alter the host response to food antigens as in celiac disease. Our recent publication describes more about this work: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6333/44

After graduating from UAHuntsville, I worked for the Lipid Subcore affiliated with the Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC). The Lipid Subcore provided quantitative analysis of various lipid classes on tissues and cells for investigators involved in diabetes-related research at Vanderbilt as well as from other institutions. My second project comprised a subproject of the overall research in the laboratory on microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP). MTP is a lipid transfer protein that is essential for the assembly of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in the liver and the intestine. Studies in Dr. Swift’s laboratory have revealed that MTP is expressed in a variety of tissues and cells. Another interesting aspect of this work is that Dr. Swift’s laboratory discovered an alternate MTP isoform in mice. My project was to screen various tissues for relative levels of MTP isoform expression in protein and RNA. Experience: RT PCR, immunoblotting, genotyping, lipid extraction, separation and purification, gas chromatography, fast protein liquid chromatography and date analysis

I joined the laboratory of Dr. Carmen Scholz who studied the microbial fermentation of crude glycerol, an expensive byproduct of biodiesel production. The goal of the research was to study possible alternatives for degrading the crude glycerol into usable byproducts for fertilizers. The project I was assigned investigated how bacterial cell membranes were affected by the impurities in the crude glycerol. Our results illustrated that the salts and methanol had no negative effect on the growth of the bacteria. The fatty acids, however, proved to have an inhibitory effect on the fermentation of crude glycerol. Therefore, in order to make crude glycerol a useable byproduct, it is essential that the fatty acids be removed prior to fermentation. Experience: anaerobic cell culture, HPLC, and lipid extractionsPublication:Venkataramanan.K.P, Boatman.J.J, Scholz C, Taconi K.A, Kurniawan Y, and Bothun. G.D. Impact of the Impurities in Biodiesel-Derived Crude Glycerol on its Fermentation by Clostridium pasteurianum ATCC 6013. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 2012 Feb; 93(3):1325-35