Metabolism and Translational Science Core

Name Title Business Phone Email
Christiaan Leeuwenburgh Christiaan Leeuwenburgh Professor Department Of Physiology And Aging (352) 273-5735 cleeuwen@ufl.edu
Karyn Esser Karyn Esser Professor And Chair (352) 273-5728 kaesser@ufl.edu
Thomas C Foster Thomas C Foster Professor, Evelyn F. McKnight Chair For Research On Cognitive Aging And Memory (352) 273-0033 foster1@ufl.edu
Shinichi Someya Shinichi Someya Associate Professor (352) 294-5167 someya@ufl.edu
Rui Xiao Rui Xiao Associate Professor (352) 273-9389 rxiao@ufl.edu

Core leader: Dr. Christiaan Leeuwenburgh

Our Mission

The UF Older Americans Independence Center’s Metabolism and Translational Science Core provides the infrastructure, laboratory space, trained personnel, consultative and collaborative scientific expertise to investigate aspects of the biology of aging and metabolism. A wide spectrum of established methodologies of biochemistry and molecular biology and selected measures of metabolism address a set of genetic and biological themes focused on biological mechanisms underlying aging in general, and sarcopenia and disability in particular.


Current Projects

  • Pain Resilience and Inflammatory Marker Expression (Pilot:)
  • Probing metabolomics of pancreatic cancer and skeletal muscle in elderly patients (Pilot)
  • Role of skeletal muscle Bmal1 on health span and survival (Pilot)

Biomarkers of Aging & Disease

  • Inflammation
  • Senescence
  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Oxidative stress
  • Autophagy

Mitochondria in Aging & Disease

  • Oxidative and glycolytic energy metabolism
  • Electron transport system function
  • Real-time cell metabolic analysis
  • Fuel utilization preference
  • Mitochondrial biogenesis & transcriptional activity
  • MtDNA mutations and damage
  • Mitophagy

Major Equipment

  • Luminex 200
  • Jess System
  • Bio-Tek Synergy HTX Multi-Mode Microplate Reader
  • Oxygraph-2k (Oroboros)
  • Agilent/Seahorse XFe96 Flux Analyzer

Sample types (depending on the analysis)

  • Plasma, Serum, Tissues, Tissue Homogenates, Cells, Mitochondria