Tara TeSlaa, Ph.D.

TeSlaa’s research is divided into two areas of focus: using in vivo stable isotope tracing to measure metabolic flux on the organismal, tissue and cellular level; and manipulating metabolism using genetics, diet, exercise and disease models to understand the mechanisms linking metabolism to cellular fate, function and health.

She has a particular interest in metabolic diseases including Type 2 diabetes and metabolic-associated steatohepatitis. In the latter, also known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, accumulation of fat in the liver can cause fibrosis and inflammation that impedes liver function. TeSlaa aims to understand how metabolism of the cells that cause fibrosis changes during disease progression by developing in vivo isotope tracing techniques to study cell-type specific metabolism. 

Leveraging mass spectrometry techniques, she has found that glycogen contributes to glycolysis broadly in the body, including in non-canonical glycogen-using tissues, and identified a novel role for serine catabolism in supporting de novo lipogenesis in the liver. Her metabolism research also led to the discovery of the molecule alpha-ketoglutarate, which helps pluripotent stem cells mature early in the process of differentiation. This finding supports scientists working toward stem cell-based therapies for a wide range of diseases.