Gene Expression in Leptin

Dates:
JUly - Aug 2018, Jan - Apr 2019

The goal of this project is to understand what genes are related to an increase and decrease in Leptin. Leptin is a hormone that is released by fat cells that dictates diet and consumption. If more Leptin is produced, then there are more fat cells which sends a signal to the brain to control hunger. Moreover, if fat cells are being used (in the case of dieting), less of the hormone will be produced - leading to the person or animal being hungry.

Through varying mice’s diets, collecting their resultant DNA, then running various data analytic techniques such as clustering, the lab is able to understand which genes are related to Leptin expression.

More information is available here.