Juli Bai

Instructor/Research

Ph.D., Environmental Medicine and Toxicology

University of Shanxi

Taiyuan, China

Lab: 210-567-4526

Email: baij@uthscsa.edu

Lab Association: Feng Liu, Ph.D.

Research Interests

• obesity	• diabetes
• inflammation	• immunometabolism
• energy homeostasis

Research Summary

Obesity, which is characterized by increased adiposity, has reached epidemic proportions globally. Numerous studies have shown that chronic sterile inflammation in white adipose tissue (WAT), a major depot for chemical energy storage in the form of triglyceride (TG) and for hormone and cytokine production in response to nutritional and environmental changes, plays a key role in triggering insulin resistance and its associated metabolic diseases. In contrast to WAT, the major function of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and beige adipose tissue (bAT) is to dissipate chemical energy as heat via high levels of mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (UCP-1) to counteract hypothermia and obesity. Increasing thermogenesis and suppressing inflammation have been demonstrated to exert a great metabolic benefit against diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance.

The major focus of my research effort concerns the mechanisms of obesity-induced insulin resistance, sterile chronic inflammation, and energy imbalance. Particularly, I’m interested in how obesity leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and how adipocytes crosstalk with other cell types to regulate energy homeostasis in WAT, BAT as wells as in other metabolic tissues. Better understanding of the mechanism underlying obesity-induced metabolic dysfunction will provide important information for the development of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of obesity and its related diseases.

 

Accomplishments, Awards and Honors •

• Chair’s Award for Excellence – Research Division – Department of Pharmacology – UT Health San Antonio 2017
• Outstanding Postdoctoral Poster Award – 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium – Department of Pharmacology -UT Health San Antonio 2015

Appointments, Boards, Committees and Memberships

• Editorial Board Member – Journal of Bioresearch Communications
• Hoc Reviewer – National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Exploratory Research Program
• American Diabetes Association (ADA)
• Chinese Society of Environmental Science (CSES)
• Chinese Society of Toxicology (CST)
• Shanxi Society of Toxicology (SST)

Grants, Funding and Research Support 

Application of aptamers on detection of environmental analysis – Key Project Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (No. 2012-005) – Jan, 2013-Dec, 2015

Lectures, Posters and Presentations

• DsbA-L prevents obesity-induced inflammation and insulin resistance by suppressing mtDNA release-activated cGAS-cGAMP-STING pathway – 24th Annual Graduate Student Symposium of the Department of Pharmacology, UT Health San Antonio – Oct, 2017
• DsbA-L Suppresses Inflammation and Promotes Beiging and Thermogenesis by Improving Mitochondrial Function – Diabetes, Keystone Symposium on Molecular and Cellular Biology – Keystone, USA – Jan, 2017
• DsbA-L promotes thermogenesis and suppresses inflammation by inhibition of mitochondrial stress-induced cGAS/cGAMP/STING/TBK1 retrograde signaling – 23th Annual Graduate Student Symposium of the Department of Pharmacology, UT Health San Antonio- Oct, 2016
• Identification of DsbA-L as Key Regulator of Mitochondrial Function and Energy Homeostasis – NHLBI/NIDDK Mitochondrial Biology Symposium, NIH – Bethesda, USA – May, 2016 and 75th American Diabetes Association – Boston, USA – Jun, 2015
• DsbA-L deficiency in adipose tisse impairs mitochondrial function and exacerbates diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance in mice – 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium of the Department of Pharmacology, UT Health San Antonio – Oct, 2015
• Identification of DsbA-L as a key regulator of mitochondrial function, thermogenesis, and energy homeostasis – 3rd San Antonio Postdoctoral Research Forum – Aug, 2015
• DsbA-L Deficiency in adipose tissues impaired non-shivering thermogenesis and mitochondrial homeostasis – 21th Annual Graduate Student Symposium of the Department of Pharmacology, UT Health San Antonio – Oct, 2014
• mTORC1 signaling, function and regulation in adipocyte tissues – 43RD Annual Meeting of the American Aging Association – San Antonio, USA – Jun, 2014

Patents

• Dong, C., Bai, J., Zhang, L., Tan, X., Qiao, J. and Li, Z. A New Method for Preparation of the Palladium Electrode – Invention Patent No. ZL200710139432.0 – The main classification number of international patent is G01N 27/30 and the proclaiming date of accrediting is August 25, 2010
• Meng Z, Geng H, Bai J, Zhang J, Zhang X. A lowering-blood pressure compound and its preparation way and application – Invention Patent, No. ZL 03147339.3 – The main classification number of international patent is A61K 33/04. And the proclaiming date of accrediting is December 28, 2005

Selected Publications

• Bai J, Cervantes C, Liu J, He S, Zhou H, Zhang B, Cai H, Yin D, Hu D, Li Z, Chen H, Gao X, Wang F, O’Connor J.C, Xu Y, Liu M, Dong L.Q, Liu F. (2017) DsbA-L prevents obesity-induced inflammation and insulin resistance by suppressing the mtDNA release-activated cGAS-cGAMP-STING pathway Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Nov 14;114(46):12196-12201 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1708744114
• Chen H, Bai J, Dong F, Fang H, Zhang Y, Meng W, Liu B, Luo Y, Liu M, Bai Y, Abdul-Ghani MA, Li R, Wu J, Zeng R, Zhou Z, Dong LQ, Liu F. (2017) Hepatic DsbA-L protects mice from diet-induced hepatosteatosis and insulin resistance FASEB J Jun;31(6): 2314-2326
• Bai J, He J and Gao Y. (2017) Betulin Rescues Elevated SREBP Expression in Heart of Rats Exposed to Chronic Sulfur Dioxide J Biores Commun 1(1):e104 (Editorial)
• Meng W, Liang X, Chen H, Luo H, Bai J, Li G, Zhang Q, Xiao T, He S, Zhang Y, Xu Z, Xiao B, Liu M, Hu F, Liu F. (2017) Rheb Inhibits Beiging of White Adipose Tissue via PDE4D5-Dependent Downregulation of the cAMP-PKA Signaling Pathway Diabetes May;66(5): 1198-1213
• Liu M, Bai J, He S, Villarreal R, Hu D, Zhang C, Yang X, Liang H, Slaga TJ, Yu Y, Zhou Z, Blenis J, Scherer PE, Dong LQ, Liu F. (2014) Grb10 promotes lipolysis and thermogenesis by phosphorylation-dependent feedback inhibition of mTORC1 Cell Metab. Jun 3;19(6): 967-980.
• Selected Abstracts
• Bai J, Cervantes C, Li Z, Su X, Hu D, Ruan H, Cai H, Bonab, E, Liu M, Dong LQ, Liu F. DsbA-L regulates thermogenesis and beige fat development by promoting mitochondrial function – Diabetes, 2016, 65(suppl): A34
• Chen H, Zhang Y, Bai J, Dong L.Q, Liu F. Liver-specific Knockout of DsbA-L Impairs Mitochondrial Function and Exacerbates Diet-induced Hepatosteatosis and Insulin Resistance – Diabetes, 65(suppl): A462
• Bai J, Su X, Chen H, Cervantes C, Zhang C, Hu D, Liu M, Dong LQ, Liu F. Identification of DsbA-L as a key regulator of mitochondrial function, thermogenesis, and energy expenditure. Diabetes, 2015, 64(suppl):A88