Kristofer Fritz
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Pharmacology
Alcohol use contributes to about 6% of deaths worldwide and is a leading cause of liver disease. When the liver breaks down alcohol over long periods, many processes change, including how it handles sugars and fats, defends against harmful oxidants and responds to inflammation.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Biochemistry
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
alcohol-associated liver disease
alcoholic liver disease
alcohol metabolism
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jan 2028
What they work on
- Characterize how chronic alcohol metabolism changes thiol redox signaling, the on-off switching of cysteine residues in proteins, in liver cells, using redox proteomics and bioinformatics.
- Overexpress Sirtuin 1, an enzyme that removes acetyl groups from proteins, to test how lysine acetylation controls cysteine redox signaling during alcohol metabolism.
- Combine cysteine redox and lysine acetylation data to define CoAlation-specific redox signaling, in which coenzyme A attaches to protein cysteines, in alcohol-exposed hepatocytes.
More about the research
Cells sense and respond to oxidants partly through "redox switches." These are cysteine amino acids in proteins whose chemical state changes and turns protein activity up or down. Little is known about how chronic alcohol use affects this thiol redox network in the liver.
Why it matters
Alcohol-associated liver disease affects millions of Americans and is a major cause of illness and death. Learning how alcohol rewires protein modifications on cysteine and lysine in liver cells could identify mechanisms behind alcohol's toxicity. These mechanisms could guide targeted treatments to protect the liver from alcohol damage.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shannon Bailey
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Physiology
Establish whether chronic alcohol consumption disrupts 24-hour rhythms in liver mitochondrial energy production, including the activity of cytochrome c oxidase, the rate-limiting enzyme of respiration, in alcohol-fed mice.
Ankita Srivastava
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Physiology
Test whether chronic ethanol upsets the balance between metabolic adjustments and hepatocyte division after partial hepatectomy (PHx, surgical removal of part of the liver) in rats.
Y. George Zheng
University of Georgia, GA·Biochemistry
Determine the molecular mechanisms and regulation of protein arginine methyltransferase (PRMT) activity, building on the lab's preliminary results.
The school
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus: 41 labs on PI Pages, $766M a year on research, 205 research doctorates a year.
More about University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus
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