Robert Stahelin, assistant professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Indiana University School of Medicine — South Bend and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Notre Dame, has been appointed to the editorial board of the journal Chemistry and Physics of Lipids. The journal is expanding its concentration on lipids in disease and lipid signaling. Stahelin, who will review manuscripts in the field, has published more than 50 peer–reviewed articles in other journals.
Stahelin came to Notre Dame in 2006 from the University of Illinois Chicago, where he did Ph.D. and postdoctoral work focused on how lipids and lipid membranes are involved in health and disease, including viral infections, inflammation and cancer. His nine–person lab includes some researchers focused on the role of lipids in viruses. Many viruses, including HIV, T–cell leukemia, West Nile, Ebola and other tropical diseases, get their lipid coats from human cells, providing a possible target to interfere with virus replication. Other researchers are focused on the biophysical structure of lipids, including signaling pathways involved in cancer metastasis.
