Qibin Zhang
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC·Chemistry
Many fats in our bodies are unsaturated, meaning their carbon chains contain carbon–carbon double bonds (C=C). The exact position of a double bond can differ between otherwise identical lipids, and changes in the mix of these position variants (isomers) can signal disrupted lipid metabolism in cancer and diabetes.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biochemistry
- Topics
lipidomics
unsaturated lipids
carbon-carbon double bond
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2030
What they work on
- Extend OzNOxESI, an ion reaction inside a mass spectrometer that reveals double-bond positions, from phospholipids to all lipid classes, especially glycerolipids and sphingolipids.
- Measure how diagnostic fragment signals change with double-bond position along the fatty acid chain, and build a correction algorithm for accurate quantification of lipid isomers.
- Establish safe, robust OzNOxESI on newer-generation mass spectrometer ion sources, tested with lipid extracts from cell lines, animal tissues and human plasma.
- Develop a software suite that identifies and quantifies lipids down to the level of carbon–carbon double-bond position.
More about the research
Measuring double-bond positions quickly and cheaply across many samples has been difficult. This project aims to make that routine.
Why it matters
Changes in lipid double-bond positions reflect disrupted metabolism in cancer and diabetes. Low-cost, high-throughput tools for measuring them could let many more laboratories study lipid unsaturation in health and disease. Wider use may help researchers find lipid changes tied to these conditions.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
University of North Carolina at Greensboro: 3 labs on PI Pages, $77M a year on research, 145 research doctorates a year.
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