541 CT Wethington Bldg. Academic Appointments: Education: • B.Sc.(Hons), Biochemistry, University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, Awards: • USPHS Fogarty Postdoctoral Research Fellow Research in Dr. van der Westhuyzen’s laboratory is focused on lipoprotein receptors and how such receptors contribute to or protect against artherosclerosis. Oxidized and modified lipoproteins play a key role in the development of atherosclerosis and his laboratory is studying various scavenger receptors that mediate the metabolism of such lipoprotein particles. The effect of dietary cholesterol and high fat “Western Diet” on the expression of scavenger receptors is being studied. One such receptor, the scavenger receptor-BI (SR-BI), is also a newly described receptor for HDL. SR-BI mediates the selective delivery of HDL Cholesterol cells and is a candidate receptor for mediating “reverse cholesterol transport” from extrahepatic tissues to the liver. He has shown that SR-BI exists as alternate-spliced variants and is currently studying the significance and biological functions of these isoforms. This includes an investigation of the regulation of expression of SR-BI isoforms in different tissues and the regulation by cholesterol and oxidized lipids. A central hypothosis being examined is that modification of HDL during inflammation leads to alterations of metabolic changes including a major modulation of HDL structure. Such changes would have important implications for HDL metabolism and could affect HDL-mediated cholesterol delivery to the liver, as well as cholesterol flux between HDL and cells in localized atherosclerotic lesions.
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