The Lipid Signaling Lab is investigating inflammatory mechanisms, the role of inflammation in physiology and pathology; and ways in which we can interrupt these responses and reduce pain and crippling due to chronic inflammation.

Publications and patents

Google Scholar publications and patents by Berit Johansen.

Study areas

• How signaling enzymes like phospholipase A2 (PLA2), kinases and various receptors regulate inflammatory signaling.
• How these regulators interact to control cell behavior;  metabolism, proliferation, differentiation and cell death.
• How diet macronutrient composition affect metabolic inflammation in obesity, leading to insulin resistance.

Understanding how cytosolic PLA2 functions and how to control its activity, offer important avenues for developing potent pharmacological agents for controlling numerous diseases.

We have extensively characterized the group IVA cytosolic PLA2 enzyme in cellular and in vivo models of human chronic diseases (psoriasis, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, insulin resistence, chronic kidney disease and triple negative breast cancer). From these studies we have developed a model for the action of PLA2 enzymes in cytokine induced NF-kB activation, see below.

The NTNU spinout biotech company Avexxin AS is developing novel small molecule therapeutics targeting cPLA2.