NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS
ISABEL
GRAUPERA Visiting Scientist Liver Unit of Hospital Sant Pau Barcelona, Spain
Q. How
did you decide to pursue a career in research?
Q. What
As a medical doctor, the first time you are in front of a patient you realize there are a lot of things you don’t know, and patients challenge you with different problems all the time. It was my recognition of this lack of knowledge that pushed me to engage in research as a way to answer some of the questions raised daily in my clinical practice. During my specialization training I had the opportunity to join the research group in my hospital studying the complications of cirrhosis – then I fell in love with research. I started in a clinical research group and then moved to translational/basic research. Research is a difficult path. Frequently, we don’t have positive results and all the work from weeks/months seem useless, but it’s fun as well, and the scientific discussions are really interesting and lead to new questions every time. Furthermore, when the results of a research project lead to a change in patient treatment practices, this opportunity to improve patient care is priceless. I would say that it ultimately is the potential benefits for our patients that made me pursue a career in research.
I’m a hepatologist focused on the study of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), one of the most prevalent liver diseases worldwide with a prevalence rising parallel to the epidemics of obesity and diabetes. The complex pathophysiology of NAFLD is not completely known but several studies point towards an important role of adipose tissue in the development and progression of NAFLD. That is why I first became attracted to the Hotamışlıgil lab, because this lab was the first to describe the inflammatory role of adipose tissue in metabolic diseases and to describe the meta-inflammation concept. The role of the liver in metabolic disturbances in obesity is gaining interest nowadays, and therefore joining the Center and the Hotamışlıgil lab offered me an amazing opportunity to learn about metabolism and inflammation and apply this knowledge to NAFLD.
Q. Have
you encountered particular hurdles, challenges, or barriers along the way?
A research career offers endless challenges and the best conditions for success are a good mentor, a generous team to work with hand-in-hand, and sufficient funding. I have been very fortunate to have two of the best mentors and an amazing team with which to work. The challenge commenced for me when I started my own research group and tried to get funding for our research. As an MD, PhD, it has also been challenging to combine my clinical practice with lab research. With that being said, it has also been an extraordinary privilege to be able to work directly with patients and apply first-hand clinical experience to research practices.
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attracted you to join the Hotamışlıgil lab at the Sabri Ülker Center?
Q. What
particular scientific questions motivate you?
Although obesity and NAFLD are intimately linked, not all patients with obesity present NAFLD and not all NAFLD patients progress to advanced chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. Furthermore, the progression of NAFLD to cirrhosis is done at different velocities according to individual susceptibilities and also to different metabolic environments. These are the main questions presented by patients in clinical practice. In this context, because obesity is associated with the presence of a low-sterile inflammatory state, I’m most interested in understanding the role of innate immune cells in NAFLD development and progression. Are adipose tissue macrophages driving NAFLD progression through adipose-tissue-liver signaling? Are liver macrophages, under a deleterious metabolic environment, driving disease progression? Can we change the phenotype of macrophages to a more anti-inflammatory or pro-resolutive phenotype to halt NAFLD progression?
