Dr. Zivkovic presented at the UC Davis Graduate Group in Nutritional Biology seminar series on October 5th, 2015. Her talk was titled “The Changing Face of Lipoproteins: the New Era of Glycobiology.” A summary of her talk is below:
HDL used to just be known as “the good cholesterol.” Now researchers are realizing these versatile little nanoparticles do more than just take cholesterol out of the arteries. HDL particles also have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory functions, and during infection they are remodeled into immune-activating particles. More and more layers of complexity in HDL composition continue to be uncovered. The newest dimension of complexity in HDL is that they are “decorated” with complex sugars, just like the sugars that coat our red blood cells and give us blood type. The role of these complex sugars or glycans in HDL biology is a new field of research that promises to yield exciting results in the years to come.