Room and Equipment Reservations in iLab

With successful integration of various technical services and supply requests in iLab, we now look to migrate room and equipment reservation process in iLab starting September 1st. Use of eIACUC will no longer be in use for room reservations September 1st onwards. You will also see QR codes posted outside each reservable procedure rooms for quicker, more prompt reservations and easy access to calendar in iLab. Refer to the communication sent to all the animal users for further information.



Veronika Miskolci, Ph.D

Assistant Professor, Center for Cell Signaling

Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

New Jersey Medical School | Newark 

Veronika has a long-standing interest in innate immunity and inflammation. She studied the role of NFkB and IL-10 in human neutrophils in context of Bronchopulmonary dysplasia as a technician in the laboratory of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Schneider Children’s Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center (now Cohen Children’s Medical Center, Northwell Health). She went on to complete her thesis work at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Here, she studied the role of Rho GTPases in macrophage chemotaxis in vitro using FRET-based biosensors under the guidance of Drs. Dianne Cox and Louis Hodgson. During her postdoctoral studies, she trained to use larval zebrafish as an in vivo model of inflammation in the laboratory of Anna Huttenlocher at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work focused on neutrophil-macrophage interaction during resolution of inflammation. This work involved characterizing the metabolic state of macrophages during wound response following infected and sterile injuries.

In collaboration with Melissa Skala, she demonstrated that autofluorescence lifetime imaging of endogenous metabolic coenzymes, NAD(P)H and FAD, is a sensitive label-free method to detect dynamic changes in the intracellular metabolism of macrophages in a live animal, without having to remove macrophages for ex vivo analysis. The small size and optical transparency of larval zebrafish make this animal model readily combine with most imaging applications. At Rutgers NJMS, she will continue to study the metabolic regulation of innate immunity during inflammation and tissue repair using larval zebrafish. She will continue to apply autofluorescence lifetime imaging and other quantitative imaging-based approaches to study immunometabolism at the single-cell level.

Igor Shmarakov, Ph.D., Sc.D.

Department of Animal Sciences

School of Environmental & Biological Sciences

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Igor Shmarakov is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University. He earned his Ph.D. and Sc.D. in Biochemistry in Ukraine and completed his postdoctoral training in Nutritional Biochemistry in Dr. William S. Blaner’s lab at Columbia University while receiving a Fulbright Faculty Development Award.

For many years, the focus of Igor’s research has been on understanding the metabolic and signaling role of retinoids (vitamin A and its metabolites). Specifically, his research is directed toward understanding the molecular mechanisms of how retinoids, as well as retinoid-interacting proteins, are involved in maintaining cellular function in the lung, liver, and adipose, and how the disruption of retinoid metabolism and signaling contributes to the development of the disease. 

The Shmarakov lab is currently working on two major projects. The first project is aimed at gaining a molecular understanding of retinoid metabolism in the adult lung. A substantial number of experimental studies involving animal models or cell culture approaches have identified the molecular functions for all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), a transcriptionally active retinoid species, and its three nuclear hormone receptors (RARα, RARβ, and RARγ) in pre- and post-natal lung development and adult lung health. However, there is a gap in understanding the molecular processes taking place in-between the consumption of vitamin A from the diet and ATRA actions within individual lung cells. This is why many approaches aimed at alleviating human lung disease with retinoids have been based on either supplementation with mega-doses of dietary vitamin A or supraphysiological doses of ATRA and ultimately have not been successful due to toxicity. This underscores the significance of this project, which aims to expand understanding of retinoid actions in the adult lung with the long-term goal of targeting retinoid metabolism and signaling to mitigate lung disease, including inflammatory acute lung injury (ALI), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung fibrosis.



The second project is focused on examining the role of retinoids and ATRA signaling as molecular targets responsible for mediating the obesogenic effects of environmental pollutants or so-called endocrine disruptors on adipose tissue and whole-body energy metabolism, and how they contribute to the development of diabetes and metabolic disease.

The Shmarakov lab extensively utilizes transgenic animal models, including whole-body knockouts and transgenics generated by Cre-loxP gene editing, to address important research questions of vitamin A physiology in the context of specific cells and tissues. These models include genetically modified animals that are either unable to store vitamin A in their tissues or have impaired transport of vitamin A in the body due to the lack of specific transport proteins and cell-surface receptors, or have blocked cell-specific ATRA-mediated signaling. 

The Shmarakov lab is open to collaborations. We believe that by bringing an understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying alterations as well as disease processes resulting from impaired retinoid metabolism and signaling, these studies will drive and direct the long-term research goal of developing effective nutritional and pharmacologically-targeted interventions that can counteract the adverse human health effects.

Igor Shmarakov, Ph.D., Sc.D.

Department of Animal Sciences

School of Environmental & Biological Sciences

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

59 Dudley Road, Foran Hall 326

New Brunswick, NJ 08901

tel.:+1 (848) 932-5617

e-mail: ishmarakov@sebs.rutgers.edu

https://animalsciences.rutgers.edu/faculty/shmarakov/