Jacob Qi

Biography

Dr Qi commenced his research career at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he studied the pharmacology of lipid-lowering drugs. He then continued in the field of lipid reesearch as a foreign co-researcher in the Department of Endocrinology, Kyoto University, Japan. Dr Qi obtained his PhD at Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, where his PhD focused on lipids, with emphasis on sphingolipid signaling and lipotoxicity. Most recently, he was research fellow at School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, where his research focused on cellular lipid mobilisation and storage.He has been appointed as Head of Diabetes Lipid Metabolism Laboratory at Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney since 2017. His current research focuses on lipid metabolism and signaling in selective hepatic insulin resistance. Dr Qi’s research is highly regarded in the field of lipid research.

Research Interest

Dysregulated lipid metabolism is a well-known risk factor in the development of type 2 diabetes. Ectopic lipid accumulation in the liver causes insulin resistance, while lipid overloading of pancreatic islets impairs insulin secretion due to lipotoxic stress. Our research focuses on multiple aspects of lipid metabolism: how sphingolipids and phospholipids regulate hepatic insulin resistance both in vivo and in vitro; how sphingolipids determine pancreatic beta-cell viability; how neutral lipids are stored and mobilised in adipocytes; and how phospholipids are transported within cells.