Bennett Lab |
BENNETT LAB
Brian Bennett , Ph.D. Research Leader Office: (530) 752-4417> Email address: brian.bennett@usda.gov Research Interests Genetics: Chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis have both genetic and environmental risk factors, but understanding the complex interactions between susceptibility genes and the environment has been difficult. I am particularly interested in using integrative genetic studies, also called systems genetics, to elucidate the genetic component of these chronic metabolic diseases. The goal of this work is to identify individual genes and/or the interaction of groups of genes, also called biologic networks, contributing to these diseases. Microbiota derived metabolites and disease risk: Diet is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease risk and integration of circulating small molecule metabolites, metabolomics, provide potential biomarkers of the disease severity and mechanisms by which atherosclerosis develops. For example, in collaboration with investigators at the Cleveland Clinic, we have recently identified a novel metabolite of dietary choline called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) that is predictive of atherosclerosis in humans and mice. Integrative analysis of this metabolite with expression mapping has confirmed begun to elucidate the mechanisms by which these traits, atherosclerosis, metabolites and transcripts, are related. Bennett Lab Themes
ARS Employees Erik Gertz UC Davis Collaborators Nazmul Huda Phoebe Yam Kristen James Undergraduate Students Jocelyn Crowell Alumni Alexa Rindy Claire Connelly
Maeda-Smithies, N., Hiller, S., Dong, S., Suk Kim, H., Bennett, B.J., Kayashima, Y. 2020. Ectopic expression of the Stabilin2 gene triggered by an IAP element in DBA/2J strain of mice. PLoS Genetics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00335-019-09824-1.
Bhetraratana, M., Orozco, L.D., Hong, J., Diamante, G., Majid, S., Bennett, B.J., Ahn, I., Yang, X., Lusis, A.J., Araujo, J.A. 2019. Diesel exhaust particles dysregulate multiple immunological pathways in murine macrophages: Lessons from microarray and scRNA-seq technologies . Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abb.2019.108116.
Coffey, A.R., Smallwood, T.L., Albright, J., Hua, K., Kanke, M., Pomp, D., Bennett, B.J., Sethupathy, P. 2019. microRNA-146a-5p association with the cardiometabolic disease risk factor TMAO. Physiological Genomics. 51(2):59-71. https://doi.org/10.1152/physiolgenomics.00079.2018.
Ghoshal, S., Stevens, J.R., Billon, C., Giradet, C., Situala, S., Leon, A.S., Rao, D., Skinner, J.S., Rankinen, T., Bouchard, C., Nunez, M.V., Stanhope, K.L., Howatt, D.A., Daugherty, A., Zhang, J., Schuelke, M., Weiss, E.P., Burris, T.P., Havel, P.J., Butler, A.A., Bennett, B.J., Sethupathy, P. 2017. Adropin: an endocrine link between the biological clock and cholesterol homeostasis. Molecular Metabolism. 8:51-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2017.12.002.
Barrington, W.T., Wulfridge, P., Gunaratna, R.T., Rojas, C.M., Howe, S.Y., Perry, A., Hua, K., Hansen, K.D., Fuchs-Young, R., Bennett, B.J., Pomp, D., Feinberg, A.P., Threadgill, D.W. 2018. Improving metabolic health through precision dietetics in mice. Genetics. 208:399-417. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.117.300536.
Liyang, Z., Cozzo, A.J., Johnson, A.R., Christensen, T., Freemerman, A.J., Bear, J.E., Rotty, J.D., Bennett, B.J., Makowski, L. 2017. Lack of myeloid Fatp1 increases atherosclerotic lesion size in Ldlr-/- mice. Atherosclerosis. 266:182-189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2017.10.009.
Coffey, A.R., Smallwood, T.L., Albright, J., Hua, K., Kanke, M., Pomp, D., Bennett, B.J., Sethupathy, P. 2017. Systems genetics identifies a co-regulated module of liver microRNAs associated with plasma LDL cholesterol in murine diet-induced dyslipidemia. PLoS Genetics. 49(11):618-629. https://doi.org/10.1152/physiolgenomics.00050.2017.
Hartiala, J., Schwartzman, W.S., Gabbay, J., Ghazalpour, A., Bennett, B.J., Allayee, H. 2017. The genetic architecture of coronary artery disease: current knowledge and future opportunities. Current Atherosclerosis Reports. 19(2):6. doi: 10.1007/s11883-017-0641-6.
Methods and Technique