{"id":3829,"date":"2014-09-09T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2014-09-19T10:43:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-19T14:43:07","slug":"athersclerosis-researcher-receives-prestigious-nih-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2014\/athersclerosis-researcher-receives-prestigious-nih-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Atherosclerosis Researcher Receives Prestigious NIH Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geisel School of Medicine post-doctoral researcher Elaina M. Melton, PhD, has received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA)<\/a> from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute<\/a> (NHLBI) to support her research on two cholesterol-related diseases, atherosclerosis and xanthomatosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important and prestigious fellowship that will help Elaina Melton to become an independent investigator in the near future,\u201d says Ta-Yuan Chang, PhD<\/a>, a professor of biochemistry at Geisel. Melton was awarded the fellowship \u201con her first try which is very rare for these kinds of awards,\u201d Chang says. Melton is a postdoctoral researcher in Chang\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n

\"Elaina
Elaina Melton (center) with Catherine and Ta-Yuan Chang.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The NRSA provides funding for up to three years for promising early-stage postdoctoral researchers who have the potential to become independent investigators in health-related research projects. The NHLBI is committed to training and mentoring emerging scientists and physicians seeking the cause of disease and enables the translation of basic discoveries into clinical practice. Melton\u2019s research will be funded for two years.<\/p>\n

Chang has spent many years studying the role that the gene ACAT1 plays in multiple human diseases, including Alzheimer\u2019s and atherosclerosis, a hardening of the arteries due to buildup of plaque. ACAT1 catalyzes the conversion of cholesterol into a storable form called cholesterol esters. A buildup of cholesterol esters in macrophages (white blood cells) within an aortic lesion is a hallmark of atherosclerosis. Melton is studying the effects of inactivating ACAT1 in macrophages on the progression of atherosclerosis. Her research involves the use of atherosclerosis mouse models engineered to be born with or without the ACAT1 gene in their macrophages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are putting macrophage-specific ACAT1-knockout mice on a high cholesterol diet to induce atherosclerosis,\u201d Melton explains. \u201cWe\u2019ll then characterize the atherosclerotic plaque by assessing plaque size and composition.\u201d Her findings will give deeper insight into how ACAT1 is involved in atherosclerosis.<\/p>\n

Another goal of the research project is to determine the impact of macrophage-specific deletion of ACAT1 on the progression of xanthomatosis. Xanthomatosis is a disease where cholesterol deposits build up under the surface of the skin.<\/p>\n

Melton earned her Ph.D. at Albany Medical College in cardiovascular science where she studied the mechanisms of a protein--fatty acid transport protein 2--in trafficking fatty acids to complex lipid pools. Her work at Albany gave new insight into the understanding of diabetes and was supported by an NIH pre-doctoral fellowship.<\/p>\n

According to Catherine Chang, Ph.D., co-principal investigator in the Chang lab and Ta-Yuan\u2019s spouse, Melton received excellent training as a graduate student and has a great personality to be a principal investigator. \u201cElaina is very calm, with good attention to detail,\u201d Catherine Chang says. For Melton, her new NIH award will help pave the way towards her goal of becoming an independent research scientist, leading her own laboratory at an academic research institution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geisel post-doctoral researcher Elaina M. Melton, PhD, has received a prestigious NIH fellowship for emerging scientists that will support her research on two cholesterol-related diseases, atherosclerosis and xanthomatosis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[400,403,398,396,401,394,399,397,320,395,402],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-research","tag-acat1","tag-atherosclerosis","tag-award","tag-catherine-chang","tag-cholesterol","tag-elaina-melton","tag-grant","tag-nih","tag-research-2","tag-ta-yaun-chang","tag-xanthomatosis","post_format-post-format-aside","author-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/09\/melton.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-ZL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3838,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions\/3838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}