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Dr. Sam Virtue
Email: sv234@medschl.cam.ac.uk
About me
I am research associate in the TVP Lab.
Research Interests
My main focus is on metabolic flexibility. I study how using the wrong nutrients at the wrong times leads to metabolic disease, focusing on how adipose tissue controls nutrient storage and supply to other organs. I also study fatty acid remodelling and how it impacts on physiology and metabolic disease, and I also have a long-standing interest in improving the translatability of mouse physiology to humans.
Publications
Metabolic Flexibility:
Virtue, S., Petkevicius, K., Moreno-Navarrete, J.M., Jenkins, B., Hart, D., Dale, M., Koulman, A., Fernandez-Real, J.M., and Vidal-Puig, A. (2018). Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma2 Controls the Rate of Adipose Tissue Lipid Storage and Determines Metabolic Flexibility. Cell Rep 24, 2005-2012 e2007.
Azzu, V., Vacca, M., Virtue, S., Allison, M., and Vidal-Puig, A. (2020). Adipose Tissue-Liver Cross Talk in the Control oef Whole-Body Metabolism: Implications in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Gastroenterology.
Fatty acid remodelling:
Tan, C.Y.*, Virtue, S*., Bidault, G., Dale, M., Hagen, R., Griffin, J.L., and Vidal-Puig, A. (2015). Brown Adipose Tissue Thermogenic Capacity Is Regulated by Elovl6. Cell Rep 13, 2039-2047.
Senyilmaz, D., Virtue, S., Xu, X., Tan, C.Y., Griffin, J.L., Miller, A.K., Vidal-Puig, A., and Teleman, A.A. (2015). Regulation of mitochondrial morphology and function by stearoylation of TFR1. Nature 525, 124-128.
Senyilmaz-Tiebe, D., Pfaff, D.H., Virtue, S., Schwarz, K.V., Fleming, T., Altamura, S., Muckenthaler, M.U., Okun, J.G., Vidal-Puig, A., Nawroth, P., et al. (2018). Dietary stearic acid regulates mitochondria in vivo in humans. Nat Commun 9, 3129.
Morigny, P., Houssier, M., Mairal, A., Ghilain, C., Mouisel, E., Benhamed, F., Masri, B., Recazens, E., Denechaud, P.-D., Tavernier, G., et al. (2019). Interaction between hormone-sensitive lipase and ChREBP in fat cells controls insulin sensitivity. Nature Metabolism 1, 133-146.
Yew Tan, C*., Virtue, S*., Murfitt, S., Roberts, L.D., Phua, Y.H., Dale, M., Griffin, J.L., Tinahones, F., Scherer, P.E., and Vidal-Puig, A. (2015). Adipose tissue fatty acid chain length and mono-unsaturation increases with obesity and insulin resistance. Sci Rep 5, 18366.
Mouse Phenotyping:
Virtue, S., Even, P., and Vidal-Puig, A. (2012). Below thermoneutrality, changes in activity do not drive changes in total daily energy expenditure between groups of mice. Cell Metab 16, 665-671.
Virtue, S., and Vidal-Puig, A. (2013). Assessment of brown adipose tissue function. Frontiers in physiology 4, 128.
Even, P.C., Virtue, S., Morton, N.M., Fromentin, G., and Semple, R.K. (2017). Editorial: Are Rodent Models Fit for Investigation of Human Obesity and Related Diseases? Front Nutr 4, 58.