TO BE UPDATED SOON
December, 2019- Curling adventure
To unwind and experience the joy and frustration that is curling, the Mulivihill, D'Costa and Fullerton labs headed to the Ottawa Curling Club.
October, 2019- Canadian Vascular & Lipid Summit (Banff)
The Canadian Lipoprotein Conference was held in conjunction with the Canadian Society of Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (CSATVB) meeting- rebranded the Canadian Vascular and Lipid Summit. The Fullerton Lab was well-represented. Congrats to everyone for outstanding presentations (Tyler won a presentation prize and Peyman won a travel award). Next year- Quebec City!
October, 2019- Publication update:
Congratulations to Tyler Smith and co-authors. In a collaborative effort with Dr. Suresh Gadde, we aimed to test redox-reactive nanoparticle formulations in macrophages. Check out the paper here.
September, 2019- Scholarship update!
Congratulations to Julia Nunes (PhD student), Tyler Smith (MSc student) and Ciara Pember (MSc student), who all received Ontario Graduate Scholarships (OGS) for the 2019/2020 academic year. Fantastic work!
September, 2019- New student welcome!
Ciara, Tyler and Sabrin all joined the lab (summer and fall of 2019). Also HUGE thank you to Nia Ambursley, a terrific summer student who was a champ at quantifying atherosclerotic plaque!
August, 2019- bioRxiv Update
Fatty acid-induced lipotoxicity inhibits choline metabolism independent of ER stress in mouse primary hepatocytes
In vitro hepatitis C virus infection and hepatic choline metabolism
Characterization of LXR-activating nanoparticle formulations in primary mouse macrophages
April 30, 2019- Congratulations Dr. Julia!!
Julia successfully rocked her PhD transfer/comprehensive exam. Well done future Dr. Nunes!
February, 2019- Collaborative Publication Update
Losier TT, Akuma M, McKee-Muir OC, LeBlond ND, Suk Y, Alsaadi RM, Guo Z, Reshke R, Sad S, Campbell-Valois FX, Gibbings DJ, Fullerton MD, Russell RC. Cell Reports 2019.
Almutairi SM, Ali AK, He W, Yang DS, Ghorbani P, Wang L, Fullerton MD, Lee SH. J Biol Chem. 2019
Loh K, Tam S, Murray-Segal L, Huynh K, Meikle PJ, Scott JW, van Denderen B, Chen Z, Steel R, LeBlond ND, Burkovsky LA, O'Dwyer C, Nunes JRC, Steinberg GR, Fullerton MD, Galic S, Kemp BE. Hepatol Commun. 2018
A role for phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine in hepatic insulin signaling.
van der Veen JN, Lingrell S, McCloskey N, LeBlond ND, Galleguillos D, Zhao YY, Curtis JM, Sipione S, Fullerton MD, Vance DE, Jacobs RL. FASEB J. 2019
Does prenylation predict progression in NAFLD?
Ghorbani P, Smith TK, Fullerton MD. J Pathol. 2019
December, 2018- Congratulations Nick!
He deservingly received the Faculty of Medicine Graduate Student Mentorship Award (sorry for the bad picture Nick...)
July 17, 2018- Fullerton Breakfast BBQ v4.0 + Spelunking
This year, rather than having the breakfast BBQ at Chez Fullerton, we hit Elgin Street Diner before heading up to Gatineau to check out the Luskville Caves. The pictures don't do it justice! A great day of fun away from the lab for a hard working crew. I definitely say we make the caves part of the tradition!
June 9, 2018- Publication alert
Our latest paper looking into the relationship between choline metabolism and macrophage inflammation. This story was started by Shayne all those years ago, followed up by Kaitlyn and finally wrapped up by Peyman. It was a great collaboration with Dr. Bennett at uOttawa and we're looking forward to the follow up! Thanks so all involved and to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council for making the work possible.
Choline transport links macrophage phospholipid metabolism and inflammation. Snider SA*, Margison KD*, Ghorbani P, LeBlond ND, O'Dwyer C, Nunes JR, Nguyen T, Xu H, Bennett SA, Fullerton MD. J Biol Chem. 2018 Jun 7. pii: jbc.RA118.003180. doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA118.003180. [Epub ahead of print]
June 2018- 43rd Annual Canadian Lipoprotein Conference and International Society for Atherosclerosis meeting (Toronto)
A small group of us (Peyman, Julia and myself) headed down to Toronto for the CLC and ISA meetings, happening back to back. Julia presented a poster and Peyman gave a presentation. The weather was beautiful and we went on a tall ship for dinner/drinks on Saturday evening. I feel very fortunate to have been awarded the Stewart Whitman CLC Young Investigator award this year (sponsored by Amgen). Looking forward to next year's conference in Banff!
May 2018- BMI Departmental Retreat/Symposium
The departmental retreat was special this year, as it was a retreat for the entire department (not just faculty). This year, we traveled to the Chateau Montebello, were we heard some interesting and diverse science, as well as let loose a little bit and had some fun.
May 2018- Poster Presentation Prize
Congratulations to Julia Nunes for being awarded 3rd prize at the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology Research Symposium.
May 2018- Summer reset, medical school and scholarships...
Congratulations to Kaelan Gobeil Odai, who was accepted to the uOttawa Medical Program and who also was awarded a summer scholarship from the University of Ottawa Centre for Infection, Immunity and Inflammation (CI3) to continue his research through the summer. Congratulations to Shauna Han, who was awarded a summer NSERC USRA to train with the lab in the summer. Finally, welcome goes out to Tyler Smith, who conducted his 3rd year TMM rotation project in the lab and will be staying on through the summer and next year to help investigate macrophage cholesterol metabolism and targeting this by nanomedicine to hopefully treat aspects of heart disease.
February 2017- Fullerton Lab goes skating!
We went skating on the Rideau Canal. Had Beaver tails. Laughed at those who fell. It was a beautiful day and capped off with dinner out with the lab little ones.
February 2017- Lab Encounters Canada- Exploratory Surgery
In collaboration with the Russell lab (and others from CMM), we opened our doors to Encounters Canada. Each lab gave these high school students (from all over Canada) a different flavour of the science and a small glimps into the biology they study.
February 2017- Publication update
Congratulations to Nick LeBlond- detailing protocols to assess cholesterol homeostasis in macrophages and mice.
Methods to Evaluate AMPK Regulation of Macrophage Cholesterol Homeostasis. LeBlond ND, Fullerton MD. Methods Mol Biol. 2018;1732:477-493. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7598-3_30. PMID: 29480494
December, 2017- BMI Holiday party
Dr Baetz, wishing she was in our lab...
Movember, 2017- BMI my my what a nice moustache- $2454
I’d like to thank those who joined our “BMI my my what a nice moustache” Movember team, and especially those who donated to individuals or to the team. The XY component of the Fullerton lab has always put the razor away during the month, but this year we were joined by Drs. Mike Downey (+lab), Tommy Alain (who took a bit of a liberal head start), Jim Sun and Suresh Gadde. Pat Taylor and James Butcher participated again as well. This year there was also a good group of 3rd year Translational and Molecular Medicine students who joined as well.
We raised a total of $2,454 this year! Which is down from last year, but still impressive. Hopefully next year we can recruit even more BMI/CMM faculty to join the cause.
November 28, 2017-
CONGRATULATIONS REBECCA YAWORSKI MSc.!- Rebecca successfully defended her MSc. thesis on Tuesday, November 28th, 2076 entitled: "A CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HEPATIC CTL1 TRANSPORTER, ITS REGULATION VIA THE CIRCADIAN RHYTHM AND ROLE IN OBESITY". Rebecca's the second graduate student from the Fullerton lab- congrats!!
November 2017- Publication update
Congratulations to members of the Yao, Parks, Hegele and Fullerton lab.
The apolipoprotein C-III (Gln38Lys) variant associated with human hypertriglyceridemia is a gain-of-function mutation.
Sundaram M, Curtis KR, Amir Alipour M, LeBlond ND, Margison KD, Yaworski RA, Parks RJ, McIntyre AD, Hegele RA, Fullerton MD, Yao Z. J Lipid Res. 2017 Nov;58(11):2188-2196.
October 19, 2017- 42nd Annual Canadian Lipoprotein Conference
The 42nd annual CLC was held in Ottawa and co-organized by Dr. Tom Lagace and myself. We went all out and secured the Chateau Laurier for this year's event, which went off without a (major) hitch. Since it was in Ottawa, this year's conference was well attended by the Fullerton Lab, with Kaelan, Julia and Conor presenting their work via posters. The future Dr. Nick did a fantastic job presenting his work and a better job answering question. I'll also give credit where credit is due- since Julia and Nick ended up asking 75% of the "trainee-driven" questions, well done.
September 2017- Welcome Peyman (Dr. P)
We are very happy to welcome Peyman Ghorbani to the lab. Peyman did his undergraduate degree in Ottawa, followed by an MSc. in Toronto and a PhD in Germany. He is a trained immunologist and has immunometabolism roots from his time in Germany. Peyman is the Fullerton Lab's first postdoc and I'm excited to see where things go.
September 2017- 3rd Annual European AMPK Conference
I was very fortunate to be asked to speak at the 3rd annual AMPK meeting held on the picture-perfect Île de Porquerolles in the south of France.
August 2017- Bridging Therapies Lipid Conference- Banff
This was a conference organized by Jean and Dennis Vance (with whom my PhD supervisor completed her postdoc, who was external examiner on my PhD defense and with whom we now collaborate). It brought together much of the Canadian and international lipid community and was a wonderful celebration of the science that has resulted from their mentorship.
July 23, 2017- 3rd Annual Fullerton Lab Breakfast BBQ
This year it was strictly waffles, but luckily there were plenty of strawberries thanks to Kaelan.
May 2017- Immunometabolism in Dublin
I was lucky to present the lab's work at Trinity College Dublin after a kind invitation from Dr. Fred Sheedy! This was followed up by attending the Immunometabolism Keystone meeting, also in Dublin. It was great to see the fantastic work in this field- it has certainly taken off since the first meeting in 2011!
May, 2017- Medschool!
The Congratulations Mojgan! She was accepted into the MD program at uOttawa after her 3rd year of undergrad! Best of luck!
May 2017- Publication update
Congratulations to Joe Cavallari, the Schertzer lab at McMaster University and all collaborators involved. Big little story in Cell Metabolism.
Muramyl Dipeptide-Based Postbiotics Mitigate Obesity-Induced Insulin Resistance via IRF4.
Cavallari JF, Fullerton MD, Duggan BM, Foley KP, Denou E, Smith BK, Desjardins EM, Henriksbo BD, Kim KJ, Tuinema BR, Stearns JC, Prescott D, Rosenstiel P, Coombes BK, Steinberg GR, Schertzer JD. Cell Metab. 2017 May 2;25(5):1063-1074.
May 2017- Poster Presentation Prize
Congratulations to Rebecca Yaworski for being awarded 3rd prize at the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology Research Symposium.
May 2017- Scholarship updates
Congratulations to Nick LeBlond, Mojgan Rezaaifar and Kaelan Gobeil Odai. Nick received an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (even eventually accepted it), Mojgan was awarded an NSERC USRA and Kaelan received a Translational and Molecular Medicine undergraduate scholarship to conduct a summer research project in the lab. Well done lads!
February 2017- Fullerton lab gets a new tech!
Welcome Conor O'Dwyer, the Fullerton Lab's new lab technician. Conor graduated with a Biotechnology diploma from Algonquin College and has tons of hands on molecular biology experience. Luckily for the lab, he's organized, helpful and can rock a mustache better than most! Welcome to the lab Conor )#likeayoungtomselleck
February 2017- Publication update
Congratulations to the Baetz, Côté and Fullerton labs for this collaborative publication on the lysine acetyltransferase NuA4. Root beers for all! More to come on this...
Rollins M, Huard S, Morettin A, Takuski J, Pham TT, Fullerton MD, Côté J, Baetz K. PLoS Genet. 2017 Feb 23;13(2):e1006626.
February 2017- TMM rotation student-
Kaelan Gobeil Odai has joined the lab as a 3rd year rotation student from the TMM program. He aimed to validated some AMPK knockout cells for us. Here he is at his poster presentation (#dressforsuccess)
December, 2016- Back to China- Shanghai for Longhua International Forum on Digestive Diseases
I traveled back to China for a short symposium on metabolism and digestive disorders with Dr. Zemin Yao and Dr. Lisheng Wang. A whirl-wind trip: left Toronto Thursday afternoon, arrived Shanghai Friday evening and left Sunday at 4 pm to arrive home in a snowstorm at 2 am Monday morning.
November 25, 2016- Thesis defense!
CONGRATULATIONS SHAYNE SNIDER MSc!- Shayne successfully defended his MSc thesis on Friday, November 25th, 2016 entitled: "Choline transport links phospholipid metabolism and inflammation in macrophages". Shayne is the first graduate student from the Fullerton lab- well done Shayne (now let's finish the paper!)
November- 2016- Fullerton Lab Movember team raises $3106
This year the Fullerton Lab was joined by students and Faculty members from the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology and together they raised $3106. Thank you to those who supported this cause. Next year we hope to recruit even more members from across the Faculty.
October, 2016- uOttawa UROP
Congratulations to Mojgan Rezaaifar, who was the successful recipent of a uOttawa Undergraduate Research Opportunity award. She will be looking at the potential benefit of combining LXR and AMPK activating therapies to combat fatty liver.
October, 2016- Halloween!
The Fullerton Lab continued its strong showing at the departmental Halloween contest. Who ever dressed up as Alice was particularly committed this year... please reference the shoes (way too small).
(anyone else notice the recycling of the yellow shirts from 2014?).
September, 2016- Canadian Lipoprotein Conference- St. John's
The Fullerton Lab was represented this year at the 41th annual Canadian Lipoprotein Conference, held in St. John's Newfoundland. Nick, Shayne and Rebecca all presented their research via a poster and they all kissed a dead fish.
July, 2016- Grants and Breakfast BBQ
The first ever CIHR Project Scheme competition had its fair share of critisims. Luckily, Canadian health researchers came together to influence some important reforms at CIHR, which will hopefully ensure a better peer-review system and an optimized application process.
The lab was fortunate to be successful in this first competition and have beenawarded:
a CIHR Project Grant (2016-2021)
an Early Researcher Award, from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (2016-2021)
a Heart and Stroke Foundation Early Researcher Leadership Initiative award (2016-2019)
We celebrated with the 2nd Annual Breakfast BBQ, but had so much fun, we forgot to take any pictures.
May, 2016-
Congratulatons to Leah Burkovsky, who recieved a summer studentship from the Canadian Liver Foundation to investigate cholesterol synthesis and fatty liver disease. Well done Leah!
April 29, 2016- Fullerton Lab's first PhD Candidate
Congratulations to Nick LeBlond, who successfully completed his hybrid PhD transfer/comprehensive exam today!
Nick is the first PhD candidate in the Lab- and will continue to investigate the role of macrophage AMPK in atherosclerosis.
Congrats Dr. Nick
April- 2016- Publication update
We are happy to report that two manuscripts have recently been published by the Fullerton Lab.
The first paper is a collaborative effort with Dr. Kathryn Moore's group at NYU published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation:
Ouimet M, Ediriweera H, Gundra UM, Sheedy F, Ramkhelawon B, Hutchison S, Rinehold K, van Solingen C, Fullerton MD, Cecchini K, Rayner K, Steinberg GR, Zamore P, Fisher EA, Loke P, Moore KJ. Metabolic regulation by miR-33 in macrophages controls immune effector responses. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2015 Oct 26;125(12):4334-48
The second paper is an invited review in the journal Current Opinions in Lipidology, focused on the hepatic AMPK:
Fullerton MD. AMP-activated protein kinase and its multifaceted regulation of hepatic energy metabolism. Current Opinions in Lipidology, 2015 Apr;27(2):172-80)
December- 2015- Fullerton Lab rock climbing fun
To celebrate the end of 2015 and to get out of the lab, we went rock climbing. This was of course preceded by the annual end of year sushi lunch.
November- 2015- Fullerton Lab Movember team raises $1872
This year the Fullerton Lab (who gained 2 more moustache-capable members) was joined by students and Faculty members from the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology and together they raised $1872. Thank you to those who supported this cause. Next year we hope to recruit even more members from across the Faculty.
October 30, 2015- Fullerton Lab wins best costume prizes
This year the Fullerton Lab was dressed as the characters from Disney's Toy Story. An inspired effort won the lab best group costume and Rebecca Yaworski best individual costume. Well done.
October 21-25 , 2015- ISN Symposium- Shenzhen China
I was recently invited to give a presentation at the 2015 Immunomodulation of renal-cardiometabolic function symposium in Shenzhen China. It was his first trip to China and although short, it was a fantastic meeting full of interdisciplinary talks relating to immunometabolism. I may or may not have also eaten questionably small rodent and potential feet of some sort...
October 15-18 , 2015- Canadian Lipoprotein Conference
The Fullerton Lab was represented this year at the 40th annual Canadian Lipoprotein Conference, held in Toronto, Oct 15-18th. Nick presented his research via a poster and both Nick and I (along with many esteemed colleagues from across the country), belted out a fantastic rendition of "500 Miles" at karaoke. We look forward to next year's conference in Newfoundland.
September 8 , 2015- A new school year begins!
The Fullerton lab is now through it's first year and happy to welcome Rebecca Yaworski as a new MSc student. Rebecca will be investigating the role of CTL1 and choline uptake in various aspects of metabolism.
July 15, 2015-
The March 2015 CIHR Transitional Open Operating Grant results are in and we are extremely happy to announce that we were awarded Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health- New Investigator Bridge Funding!
In addition, I was fortunate to be awarded a CIHR- New Investigator Salary Award (2015-2020)
Both grants are geared toward understanding AMPK regulation of macrophage cholesterol metabolism in atherosclerosis
July, 2015- 1st Annual Fullerton Lab Breakfast BBQ
Breakfast BBQ #1 = Pancakes (some done on BBQ).
May 1, 2015- Summer Student Blitz
The Fullerton Lab is happy to welcome the new trio of summer students (Kathryn, Zach and Nick #2), who are getting a head start on their 4th year undergraduate thesis project by working full/part time in the lab. This effectively doubles the personnel in the lab!
Also welcome Jessica, who will be volunteering for the summer to get a first hand glimpse at the glamour of research!
April 20, 2015-
The Fullerton Lab is happy to announce that the lab has been awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant (2015-2020) for a project that will help determine the importance of choline metabolism in macrophage function- "Linking Choline Metabolism and Immunity".
April 10, 2015- Summer Studentship Award
Congratulations to Ms. Stacie Wood (BSc). She was awarded a University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine- Research Summer Studentship, which allows first year medical students to conduct (in Stacie's case) basic science research for their first summer.
Stacie will be investigating the role of macrophage AMPK in regulating mitochondrial homeostasis and starts June 1. Good luck!
April 1, 2015- NSERC MSc Award
This was no April Fool's trick- it's true! Mr. Shayne Snider has been awarded a Canadian Graduate Scholarship from NSERC for the last year of his Master's research. Congrats Shayne!
March 27, 2015-
We are grateful to have received funding approval from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. This application has secured a new (state-of-the-art) flow cytometer for the Faculty of Medicine Flow Cytometry Core Facility.
March 15, 2015- Publication update
Our latest paper was just accepted to the Journal of Lipid Research. Click the link below to view the paper online.
This is the first (co-published) study out of the Fullerton Lab here at uOttawa and the first publication for Mr. Snider and Mr. LeBlond!
Salicylate improves macrophage cholesterol homeostasis via activation of Ampk. Fullerton MD*, Ford RJ, McGregor CP, LeBlond ND, Snider SA, Stypa SA, Day EA, Lhoták Š, Schertzer JD, Austin RC, Kemp BE, Steinberg GR*. J Lipid Res. 2015 Mar 15. pii: jlr.M058875. [Epub ahead of print] (co-correspondance)
October 31, 2014- Halloween!
Halloween saw 3/4 of the lab go all out for their costumes. The term "minions" was also coined for certain personnel in the lab.
