Stacey Keenan

Stacey completed her Ph.D studies in April 2019 at Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University. She has spent several years examining lipid metabolism in both cellular and murine models. Her Ph.D studies were focused on characterizing the role of the protein perilipin 5 (PLIN5) in liver lipid and glucose metabolism. Specifically, she utilised radiometric techniques to assess lipid and glucose metabolism in various experimental models (e.g. in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo) with PLIN5 deletion or overexpression. Stacey also mastered the gold-standard technique of measuring tissue-specific insulin sensitivity using hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps and found liver specific PLIN5 deletion caused hepatic insulin resistance in mice. Currently, her work investigates intracellular organelle cross-talk, focusing on the protein interactions between lipid droplets, mitochondria, and the endoplasmic reticulum, and the effect of these interactions on cellular lipid metabolism in health and disease.