Samantha Gonzalez - URS Research

SAMANTHA GONZALEZ PARTICIPATES AT EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY (ASN) MEETING IN CHICAGO APRIL 2016

ASN: American Society for Nutrition

Samantha Gonzalez gave oral and poster presentations for her abstract co-authored by Kembra Albracht-Schulte, Latha Ramalingam, Nishan S Kalupahana and Naima Moustaid-Moussa, entitled "Mechanisms Mediating Effects of Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Hepatic Steatosis in High Fat Fed Mice and in HepG2 Hepatoma Cells".

In this research, Samantha used liver from mice fed high fat diets which were enriched or not with fish oil and studied changes in genes and proteins responsible for fat storage, breakdown and inflammation in the liver. She also established and used a cell model for mouse liver (Human HepG2 hepatoma cells) and treated them with or without the fatty acids to determine their direct effects on liver cell metabolism and gene expression.

Her studies showed that omega 3 fatty acids from fish oil reduce fat accumulation in the liver, which occurs in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, often co-existent with obesity. Omega 3 fatty acids work in part by reduced fat storage, increasing fat oxidation and reducing glucose production by the liver.

AWARDS and presentations:
• Samantha Gonzalez, an NS undergraduate Honors student and Terry Scholar was awarded selected for a FASEB MARC award to attend and present her research at EB.
• Samantha Gonzalez competed as one of the six finalists in the oral competition for the American Society for Nutrition's Young Minority Investigator Award, which took place on Saturday April 22nd during EB, 2017.
• Samantha was also selected as a finalist to present her poster at the American Society for Nutrition's Emerging Leaders Poster Competition during Experimental biology, April 22nd, 2017. She was announced as a first place winner for this poster competition, during the Dietary Bioactive Components Research Interest Section on Monday April 24th.

• Poster Presentations:
       Samantha Gonzalez, Kembra Albracht-Schulte, Latha Ramalingam, Nishan S Kalupahana and Naima Moustaid-Moussa. Mechanisms Mediating Effects of Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Hepatic Steatosis in High Fat Fed Mice and in HepG2 Hepatoma Cells (ASN)

In addition to EB, Samantha also presented posters at the TTU undergraduate Research Conference in March 2017, and at the National Undergraduate Research Conference in Memphis in April 2017; these were supported in part by CALUE/Honors College.