Professor and Racheff Faculty Scholar Cecilia Leal of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was recently featured on The Academic Minute, a daily audio module highlighting groundbreaking research from universities worldwide.
In her segment, Leal discussed her lab's recent discovery about how fat cells adapt during obesity. The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, reveals that fat cells don't simply grow larger—they undergo sophisticated internal transformations at the molecular level.
Using advanced techniques including X-ray diffraction, solid-state NMR and cryo-electron microscopy, the team found that fat molecules reorganize into tightly packed crystalline structures during caloric overload. This structural remodeling may serve a protective role by allowing efficient energy storage and delaying the spillover of excess fat into other organs, a process linked to metabolic diseases like diabetes.
The Academic Minute is hosted by Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, President of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and can be heard on WAMC each weekday at 7:30 a.m. and 3:56 p.m.
This discovery challenges conventional views of obesity and could lead to new therapeutic approaches targeting fat storage at the cellular level.
Illinois Grainger Engineering Affiliations
Cecilia Leal is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor of materials science and engineering and is affiliated with the Department of Bioengineering and the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. She holds the Racheff Faculty Scholar appointment.