Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences

Todd D. Porter, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Room 446 College of Pharmacy
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy
725 Rose St.
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40536-0082
Tel: (859)-257-1137
Fax: (859)-257-7564
e-mail: tporter@email.uky.edu                              Publication Listings on PubMed

Academic Appointments:

• Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy
• Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences
• Graduate Center for Toxicology, College of Medicine

Education:

• B.S., Biochemistry, University of Illinois
• Ph.D., Pharmacology, University of Illinois
• Postdoctoral Fellow, McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of    Wisconsin, Madison

Awards:

• NIH Predoctoral Fellow
• NIH Postdoctoral Fellow

Specific Interest in Nutrition:

Modulation of cholesterol synthesis by natural products.

Research:

Cholesterol biosynthesis is an essential pathway with important health ramifications. Various dietary and nutritional products are able to lower blood cholesterol levels, often by reducing cholesterol synthesis. The Porter laboratory is exploring the mechanisms by which these commonly available substances inhibit cholesterol synthesis, using cultured hepatoma cells and recombinant DNA techniques. Recent studies have focused on garlic and tea, and ongoing studies are examining the mechanism by which policosanol, a mixture of very long-chain alcohols, decreases HMG-CoA reductase activity. Other interests include the modulation of cholesterol synthesis by accessory proteins (supernatant protein factor) and by phosphorylation pathways, and the identification and characterization of additional enzymes associated with cholesterol synthesis.