Tara TeSlaa
Email Address:
tteslaa@mednet.ucla.edu
Office Phone Number:
(310) 825-9377
Lab Website
Lab Website
Office Address:
CNSI 4347
Assistant Professor, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
Our lab studies how organismal and tissue metabolism is altered in metabolic diseases and how these alterations lead to cell and tissue dysfunction. Using in vivo stable isotope tracing, we are able to trace how nutrients are used in the body. This methodology enables us to gain a deeper understanding of the metabolic mechanisms that drive diseases such as type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). One focus of the lab follows up on previous work in which we found large differences in glucose metabolism in different types of muscle fiber- red muscle fibers (type I and IIA) exhibit large glycolytic fluxes in sedentary animals while white muscle fibers have low glycolytic flux except during exercise. Current and future work seeks to understand mechanistically what drives high glycolysis in the red muscle fibers with the goal of identifying novel ways activate glycolysis and overcome muscle insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes. Another focus of the lab is to understand the metabolic changes that occur during the progression of NAFLD/NASH. We aim to dissect the metabolic drivers of fibrosis in the liver with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets.
A selected list of publications:
TeSlaa T, Bartman CR, Jankowski CSR, Zhang Z, Xu X, Xing X, Wang L, Lu W, Rabinowitz JD. The Source of Glycolytic Intermediates in Mammalian Tissues. Cell Metabolism. 2021 Feb 2;33(2) 367-378e5. PMID: 33472024; PMCID: PMC8088818.
Bartman CR, Weilandt DR, Shen Y, Lee WD, Han Y, TeSlaa T, Jankowski CSR, Samarah L, Park NR, da Silva-Diz V, Aleksandrova M, Gultekin Y, Marishta A, Wang L, Yang L, Roichman A, Bhatt V, Lan T, Hu Z, Xi X, Lu W, Davidson S, Wühr M, Vander Heiden MG, Herranz D, Guo JY, Kang Y, Rabinowitz JD. Slow TCA flux and ATP production in primary solid tumours but not metastases. Nature 2023 Feb 1.
Bartman CR, TeSlaa T, Rabinowitz JD. Quantitative flux analysis in mammals. Nature Metabolism. 2021 July;3(7):896-908. PMC Journal in Process.
Hui S, Cowan AJ, Zeng X, Yang L, TeSlaa T, Li X, Bartman C, Zhang Z, Jang C, Wang L, Lu W, Rojas J, Baur J, Rabinowitz JD. Quantitative fluxomics of circulating metabolites. Cell Metabolism. 2020 Oct 6;32(4):676-688.e4. PMID: 32791100; PMCID: PMC7544659.
Zhang Z*, TeSlaa T*, Xu X, Zeng X., Yang L, Xing G, Tesz G, Clasquin M, Rabinowitz JD. Serine catabolism generates NADPH to support hepatic lipogenesis. Nature Metabolism. 2021 Nov 29;3(12) 1608-1620. PMID: 34845393; PMCID: PMC8721747.
Quinn WJ 3rd*, Jiao J*, TeSlaa T*, Stadanlick J, Wang Z, Wang L, Akimova T, Angelin A, Schäfer PM, Cully MD, Perry C, Kopinski PK, Guo L, Blair IA, Ghanem LR, Leibowitz MS, Hancock WW, Moon EK, Levine MH, Eruslanov EB, Wallace DC, Baur JA, Beier UH. Lactate Limits T Cell Proliferation via the NAD(H) Redox State. Cell Reports. 2020 Dec 15;33(11):108500. PMID: 33326785 PMCID: 7830708.
Ghergurovich JM, García-Cañaveras, Wang J, Schmidt E, Zhang Z, TeSlaa T, Patel H, Chen L, Britt EC, Piqueras-Nebot M, Gomez-Cabrera MC, Lahoz A, Fan J, Beier UH, Kim H, Rabinowitz JD. A small molecule G6PD inhibitor reveals immune dependence on pentose phosphate pathway. Nature Chemical Biology. 2020 May 11;16:731-739. PMID: 32393898 PMCID: PMC7311271.
TeSlaa T, Chaikovsky AC, Lipchina I, Escobar SL, Hochedlinger K, Huang J, Graeber TG, Braas D, Teitell MA. α-Ketoglutarate Accelerates the Initial Differentiation of Primed Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Cell Metab. 2016 Sep 13;24(3):485-493. PMID: 27476976 PMCID: PMC5023506.
TeSlaa T, Teitell MA. Pluripotent stem cell energy metabolism: an update. EMBO J. 2015 Jan 13;34(2):138-53. PMID: 25476451; PMCID: PMC4337063.
Stine RR, Sakers AP, TeSlaa T, Kissig M, Stine ZE, Kwon CW, Cheng L, Lim H-W, Kaestner KH, Rabinowitz JD, Seale P. PRDM16 Maintains Homeostasis of the Intestinal Epithelium by Controlling Region-Specific Metabolism. Cell Stem Cell. 2019 Dec 5;25(6):830-845e8. PMID: 31564549; PMCID: PMC6898778.
