Gina Wade, an IPiB graduate student, will be defending her Ph.D. research on May 2, 2025. Her research in the Simcox Lab examined the role lipids play in regulating body temperature through energy expenditure and heat production during cold exposure.
A body that is stressed by environmental conditions, such as exposure to cold, requires more energy. Some of that energy comes from lipids, which are important energy storage molecules and are involved in how cells communicate with each other. Hundreds of different lipids in the blood plasma respond to the new need for energy. Wade’s research identified ceramide as a type of lipid that is elevated in blood during cold exposure and found that ceramide regulates how much energy cells expend to generate heat.
Excess lipids in our blood can connote health risks. But, Wade emphases, it is a mistake to identify any lipid as “bad” or “good”. The hundreds of types of lipids in our blood all serve biological functions. Excess ceramides in the blood are known to drive heart disease and diabetes. They also signal to increase energy expenditure when needed.
By working to understand the function of ceramides in energy expenditure, we can better understand their role in disease and how cells respond to these lipids.
“This is a newly uncovered role for ceramide — helping mammals stay alive in adverse environmental conditions,” explains Wade. “Elevated levels of ceramide in blood tend to correlate with risk of heart disease or diabetes. But something I’ve learned throughout graduate school is that no molecule that we make in our own bodies is out to get us. Everything evolved for a reason and this research is revising the dogma on a lipid that has a bad reputation but exists to keep us alive.”
Wade applied to graduate school knowing that she wanted to study metabolism. She developed an interest in metabolic diseases at a young age when her brother was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. “I was always interested in science. When he was diagnosed it was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. I was 9 or 10 and asking questions like what is diabetes and why can’t my brother eat the same foods he used to? It was super confusing, and it made me really curious.”
After joining IPiB in fall 2020, Wade became an active member of the Graduate Leadership and Development Committee (GLDC). She also played sports, including volleyball, racquetball, soccer and tennis, with her fellow graduate students.
“Sometimes I played in leagues, sometimes it was just a little racquetball on weekends before heading back to the lab,” says Wade. “It kept me going during stressful times. It’s important to find something to do and think about that’s not work.”
Wade’s research has been published in the Journal of Lipid Research and Frontiers in Physiology. She plans to accept a position as a postdoctoral researcher and pursue a career in academia.
To learn more about Wade’s research, attend her Ph.D. defense, “Regulation of brown adipocyte energy expenditure by exogenous ceramide lipids” on Friday, May 2 at 1:00 p.m. CT in Room 1211 of Hector F. DeLuca Biochemical Sciences Building.
Written by Renata Solan.