Biography

Yanfei (Jacob) Qi is establishing his scientific reputation in lipid research. He is currently Head of Diabetes Lipid Metabolism Laboratory at Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney (USYD), Australia. His current research focuses on the lipid metabolism and signaling in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Jacob commenced his research career with pharmacological studies of anti-diabetic medicines at USYD, and then continued his research as foreign co-researcher at Kyoto University, Japan. Jacob obtained his PhD at Sydney Medical School, USYD. His PhD study focused on sphingolipid signaling and lipotoxicity in T2D and NAFLD. More recently, he was research fellow at The University of NSW, Australia, where he developed research expertise in phospholipid metabolism, intracellular lipid transport and lipid droplet biology. Jacob published a number of well-cited first-author papers in the past 5 years. His research output has been increasing as reflected in the number of publication and citation per annum.

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Research Interest

Dysregulated lipid metabolism is a well-known risk factor in the development of type 2 diabetes. Ectopic lipid accumulation in the liver causes insulin resistance, while lipid overloading of pancreatic islets impairs insulin secretion due to lipotoxic stress. Our research focuses on multiple aspects of lipid metabolism: how sphingolipids and phospholipids regulate hepatic insulin resistance both in vivo and in vitro; how sphingolipids determine pancreatic beta-cell viability; how neutral lipids are stored and mobilised in adipocytes; and how phospholipids are transported within cells. In addition to lipid studies in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, we also aim to identify lipid biomarkers for diabetes at early diagnosis. The majority of pre-diabetic subjects proceed to type 2 diabetes, however, prediabetes is usually unrecognised, which constitutes a major public health concern. Thus, identification of high-risk individuals via a biomarker is urgently needed. We will utilise the plasma sample bank from a cohort with over 6,000 subjects to screen the lipid species that is closely correlated to insulin resistance and prediabetes.