Amnon Schlegel,
MD, PhD
Languages Spoken: English
Labs: Website
Dr. Schlegel is a board certified specialist in Adult Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes. Dr. Schlegel sees patients with lipid disorders at the Utah Diabetes and Endocrinology Center on a referral basis. He sees patients with all general endocrine disorders at the Salt Lake VA Medical Center Endocrine Clinic.
Clinical Locations
Veterans Administration Medical Center
801-582-1565
Board Certification and Academic Information
| Academic Departments | Internal Medicine
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Associate Professor Biochemistry - Adjunct Associate Professor Nutrition and Integrative Physiology - Adjunct Associate Professor |
| Academic Divisions | Endocrinology and Metabolism |
| Board Certification | American Board of Internal Medicine (Internal Medicine) American Board of Internal Medicine (Sub: Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism) |
Dr. Schlegel was a trainee in the Medical Scientist Training Program of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he received his M.D. and Ph.D. He was an intern and resident physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA, and was a Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was a clinical fellow in the Diabetes, Endocrine, and Metabolism Training Program at the University of California San Francisco, where he was subsequently a post-doctoral associate in the laboratory of Professor Didier Y.R. Stainier, Ph.D., in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. It was there that he established a zebrafish molecular genetic system for studying lipid metabolism.
In 2010, Dr. Schlegel was recruited to the University of Utah as an investigator in the Molecular Medicine Program and as an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry. He was promoted to Associate Professor with award of tenure in 2016. He hosts graduate students in his lab through the Molecular Biology and Biological Chemistry Graduate programs. His laboratory uses model organisms (zebrafish and mice) to identify and characterize new genes that participate in lipid and glucose metabolism. The long-term goal of this work is to identify novel therapeutic targets for treating obesity, type 2 diabetes, and lipid disorders.
Academic Locations
George and Dolores Eccles Institute of Human Genetics
801-585-0730
Research Interests
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My laboratory takes a multi-pronged approach to identifying and characterizing novel genes involved in lipid and glucose metabolism. We focus on processes that contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the hopes of developing better diagnostic and therapeutic modalities to treat this pandemic, multi-organ illness. The central area of study is how the transcriptional repressor FOXN3, whose gene locus is associated with fasting blood glucose in population genetic studies, acts to regulate metabolism. This work spans human physiology, genetically engineered mice and zebrafish, and cell-based approaches. This work is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. A second area of investigation centers on how the small intestine handles dietary fats during normal physiology and disease. This interest is spurred by the long-standing, but incompletely understood observation that type 2 diabetes mellitus is marked by post-prandial hyperlipidemia. We focus on the oxysterol (cholesterol catabolites)-binding nuclear hormone receptor Liver X Receptor Alpha, and have found that activation of this transcription factor serves as a break on the enterocytes transport of absorbed lipids into the circulation (in the form of chylomicrons that initially enter the lymphatic drainage). This work has received support from the American Heart Association, and relies primarily on larval and adult zebrafish as a model system. |
Board Certification and Academic Information
| Academic Departments | Internal Medicine
-
Associate Professor Biochemistry - Adjunct Associate Professor Nutrition and Integrative Physiology - Adjunct Associate Professor |
| Academic Divisions | Endocrinology and Metabolism |
| Board Certification | American Board of Internal Medicine (Internal Medicine) American Board of Internal Medicine (Sub: Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism) |
Research Interests
- Adipose Tissue
- Biochemistry
- Diabetes Mellitus
- Endocrinology
- Hormones
- Lipids
- Molecular Genetics
- Obesity
- Kinase
- Zebrafish
- Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
- Monocarboxylate Transporter
- Ketone Bodies
Education History
| Fellowship | University of California, San Francisco Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism Fellow |
| Residency | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Internal Medicine Resident |
| Internship | Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Internal Medicine Intern |
| Doctoral Training | Albert Einstein College of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program, Department of Molecular Pharmacology Ph.D. |
| Professional Medical | Albert Einstein College of Medicine Medicine M.D. |
| Undergraduate | Hofstra University Major: Biochemistry, Minor: Mathematics B.S. |
Selected Publications - Journal Articles
Journal Article
- Karanth S, Adams JD, Serrano MLA, Quittner-Strom E, Simcox J, Villanueva CJ, Ozcan L, Holland WL, Yost HJ, Vella A, Schlegel A (2018). A hepatocyte FOXN3—α cell glucagon alpha-axis regulates fasting glucose. Cell Rep, 24(2), 312-319.
- Hugo SE, Schlegel A (2017). A genetic model to study increased hexosamine biosynthetic flux. Endocrinology, 158(8), 2420-2426.
- Benitez-Santana T, Hugo SE, Schlegel A (2017). Role of intestinal LXRα in regulating post-prandial lipid excursion and diet-induced hypercholesterolemia and hepatic lipid accumulation. Front Physiol, 8, 280.
- Hugo SE, Schlegel A (2017). A genetic screen for zebrafish mutants with hepatic steatosis identifies a locus required for larval growth. J Anat, 230(3), 407-413.
- Karanth S, Zinkhan EK, Hill JT, Yost HJ, Schlegel A (2016). FOXN3 regulates hepatic glucose utilization. Cell Rep, 15(12), 2745-2755.
- Cruz-Garcia L, Schlegel A (2014). Lxr-driven enterocyte lipid droplet formation delays transport of ingested lipids. J Lipid Res, 55(9), 1944-1958.
- Karanth S, Tran VM, Kuberan B, Schlegel A (2013). Polyunsaturated fatty acyl-Coenzyme As are inhibitors of cholesterol biosynthesis in zebrafish and mice. Dis Model Mech, 6(6), 1365-1377.
- Hugo SE, Cruz-Garcia L, Karanth S, Anderson RM, Stainier DYR, Schlegel A (2012). A monocarboxylate transporter required for hepatocyte secretion of ketone bodies during fasting. Genes Dev, 26(3), 282-293.
Review
- Schlegel A (2016). Zebrafish models for dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis research. [Review]. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 7, 159.
- Schlegel A, Gut P (2015). Metabolic Insights from Zebrafish Genetics, Physiology, and Chemical Biology. [Review]. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 72(12), 2249-2260.
- Schlegel, A (2012). Studying nonalcoholic fatty liver disease with zebrafish-- a confluence of optics, genetics, and physiology. [Review]. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 69(23), 3965-3961.