W.W. Caruth, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research
Associate Professor, Cell Biology and Biophysics
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
The Henne Lab is interested in how cells spatially organize their metabolism--and how this spatial organization enables cells and organisms to adapt to metabolic challenges. We are trying to answer three fundamental questions:
1) how are lipid droplets (major lipid storage organelles) made and organized within cells?,
2) how are lipid droplets assigned to their specific jobs in cell metabolism?, and
3) how do cells spatially organize metabolic pathways, and how do inter-organelle contact sites contribute to this?
A current focus is understanding how cells store lipids in lipid droplets (LDs), and also arrange LDs in functionally relevant patterns within cells to enable homeostasis.
