James Olzmann, PhD
Neuroscience Program: Class of 2007
Winner of the 2024 Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award
James Olzmnn, PhD, is the Doris Howes Calloway Chair and Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, at University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Olzmann won the Emory Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (GDBBS) 2024 Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award.
Dr. Olzmann, a 2007 graduate of the Neuroscience Program, performed his Ph.D. dissertation research under the mentorship of Drs. Lian Li and Lih-Shen Chin in Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Emory School of Medicine.
The research in the Olzmann lab aims to elucidate the mechanisms that govern cellular lipid homeostasis, including neutral lipid storage in lipid droplets and lipid damage leading to lipotoxic cell dealth.
Dr. Olzmann gave a special seminar at Emory hosted by the Neuroscience program of GDBBS, "Fat, Death, and Drugs: Mechanisms of Cellular Lipid Homeostasis and Ferroptosis," on October 10, 2024. He discussed advances in the understanding of the cell biology that underlies lipid quality control and ferroptosis, a form of non-apoptotic cell death that invoves the accumulation of oxidatively damaged phospholipids (i.e., lipid peroxides). Presented were recent findings highlighting the power of genetic discovery approaches to uncover therapeutically relevant mechanisms that can be targeted to regualte oxidative lipid damage and ferroptosis in health and disease.