Janos KERNER, PhD

Janos Kerner graduated from Humboldt University in Berlin (Germany) where he received his M.S. in Biology/Plant Biochemistry.  He accepted a teaching/research position in the Department of Biochemistry at Medical University of Pecs (Hungary) where he received his Ph.D. in biochemistry. He held a faculty position at Medical University at Pecs until 1994. During his faculty appointment in the Department of Biochemistry at the Medical University of Pecs, he worked for several years as a visiting faculty in the Department of Biochemistry at Michigan State University. He joined the faculty in the Department of Nutrition at CWRU in 1995.

RESEARCH INTEREST:
The elucidation of the functions of carnitine acyltransferases and acylcarnitines in intermediary metabolism and the investigation of the regulation of mitochondrial malonyl-CoA sensitive carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT-I).

My past research focused in method and assay developments for identification and quantitation of individual acylcarnitines.  Since then I have shown that carnitine is involved in specific detoxification reactions, and in modulating the acyl-CoA/CoASH ratio in cellular compartments.

My current research is in the area of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation with special emphasis on the malonyl-CoA sensitive carnitine palmitoyltransferase. CPT-I exists in two isoforms, the liver and muscle specific isoform, and catalyzes the rate controlling step of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation.

Consequently, its regulation (allostericaly by malonyl-CoA and covalently by phosphorylation) is central to several pathological conditions. Our aim is to elucidate how the two isoforms are regulated in vivo under physiological and pathological conditions using a multifaceted approach which involves enzymological and immunological methods as well as proteomics.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (link)

PubMed