UCDavis University of California

Education

• B.A, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Ph.D., Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of California, Davis

Research Interests

An overarching mission of the USDA is to improve our understanding of how diet and nutrition interact with an individual´s metabolism to obtain and maintain optimal health. Under this umbrella, the research focus of the Newman laboratory is exploring the interactions of dietary lipids, lipid transport and metabolism as they pertain to obesity and complications of obesity, including chronic inflammation and cardiovascular disease. At the heart of this research is a desire to fundamentally understand whether or not the fine tuning of an individuals’ dietary lipid intake can result in improvements in body weight and general health beyond those recommended to the general population by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. To achieve this we are exploring a series of questions in a variety of ways:

1. How does the composition of dietary lipids affect lipoprotein particle structure?
2. How do compositional changes in the lipoproteins lipids influence tissue metabolism?
3. What role do lipases and esterases play in the exposure of the periphery to lipoprotein associated “bioactive” lipids?
4. How do dietary lipids impact inflammatory process associated with obesity?
5. Does the inter-individual variability in diet-responsive lipid metabolism hold information that can be used to identify populations with an elevated risk of diet-induced disease?

Specifically, the group is developing tools for the routine use of targeted metabolomic profiling to address questions relating to the impact of diet and dietary components on human health and obesity. This approach is hinged upon the idea that one powerful means of understanding the body is to measure how factors, such as nutrition and disease, effect the production, distribution and elimination of the chemical building blocks, fuel, waste, and regulatory molecules that are used to direct, tune, and modulate critical bodily functions. By narrowing our focus to target metabolic profiles of compounds with known function within related metabolic pathways, the changes we observe in metabolite patterns can be interpreted with respect to changes in underlying cellular processes. Specifically, our efforts have focused on the impact that the content and composition of dietary lipid have on the levels of lipid metabolites that regulate cellular growth, inflammation, and blood pressure. Most recently, we have begun to refine these tools and apply them to questions relating to the obesity problem associated with a “Western” diet, and are designing novel experiments to ask how differences in individual responses to dietary lipids might manifest in different risks for obesity and health complications associated with the overweight state.

Selected Publications

• Watkins, S.M., B.D. Hammock, J.W. Newman, J.B. German. 2001. Individual metabolism should guide agriculture toward foods for improved health and nutrition. Am J Clin Nutr. 74(3):283-6.
• Newman, J.W., T. Watanabe, B.D. Hammock. 2002. The simultaneous quantification of cytochrome P450 dependent linoleate and arachidonate metabolites in urine by high-performance liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectroscopy. J Lipid Res. 43:1563-1578.
• Newman, J.W., C. Morisseau, T.R. Harris, B.D. Hammock. 2003. The soluble epoxide hydrolase encoded by EPXH2 is a bifunctional enzyme with novel lipid phosphate phosphatase activity. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA. 100(4):1558-63.
• Dey, A., R.S. Williams, D.M. Pollock, D.W. Stepp, J.W. Newman, B.D. Hammock, J.D. Imig. 2004. Altered kidney CYP2C and cyclooxygenase-2 levels are associated with obesity-related albuminuria. Obes Res 12:1278-89.
• Newman, J.W., C. Morisseau, B.D. Hammock. 2005. Epoxide hydrolases: Their role and interactions with lipid metabolism. Prog Lipid Res. 44:1-51.
• Schmelzer, K., L. Kubala, J. Eiserich, J.W. Newman, B.D. Hammock. 2005. Soluble epoxide hydrolase is a therapeutic target for acute inflammation. PNAS. 102(28):9772-77.
• Luria, A., S.M. Weldon, A.K. Kabcenell, R.H. Ingraham, D. Matera, R. Gill, C. Morisseau, J.W. Newman , B.D. Hammock. 2007. Compensatory mechanism for homeostatic blood pressure regulation in Ephx2 gene disrupted mice. J Biol Chem. 282(5):2891-2898.
• Wheelock, C.E., S. Goto, B.D. Hammock, J.W. Newman. 2007. Clofibrate-induced changes in the liver, heart, brain and white adipose lipid metabolome of Swiss-Webster mice. Metabolomics. 3(2):137-145.
• Newman, J.W., B.D. Hammock, G.A. Kaysen, G.C. Shearer. 2007. Proteinuria increases oxylipid concentrations in VLDL and HDL, but not LDL particles in the rat. J. Lipid Res. 48(8):1792-800.
• Driesbach, A., J.C. Rice,S. Japa,J.W. Newman,A. Sigel, R.S. Gill, A.E. Hess, B.D. Hammock, J.J.L. Lertora, L.L. Hamm. 2008. Salt loading increases urinary excretion of linoleic acid diols and triols in healthy human subjects.  Hypertension. 51:755-761.
• Sanchez-Mejia, R.S., J.W. Newman, S. Toh, G-Q. Yu, Y. Zhou, K. Scearce-Levie, I.H. Cheng, L. Gan, J.J. Palop, J.V. Bonventre, L. Mucke.  2008. Phospholipase A2 reduction ameliorates cognitive deficits in mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Nat Neurosci. 11(11):1311-8.
• Wang, L., R. Gill, T.L. Pedersen, J.W. Newman, J.C. Rutledge. 2009. Triglyceride-rich lipoprotein lipolysis releases neutral and oxidized free fatty acids that induce endothelial cell inflammation.  J. Lipid Res. 50(2):204-13 [EPub Sept, 2008].
• Shearer, G.C, J.W. Newman. 2008. Lipoprotein lipase liberates esterified oxylipins from very low-density lipoproteins. Prostaglandins Leukot. Essent. Fatty Acids. 79(6):215–22.
• Paulino, G., C.B. de la Serre, T. Knotts, P. Oort, J.W. Newman, S. Adams, H. Raybould. 2009. Altered expression of receptors for orexigenic factors in nodose ganglion of diet-induced obese rats. Am. J. Physiol. – Endocrin. Metab. [E-Pub Feb. 3, 2009].
• Adams, S.H., C.L. Hoppel, K. Lok, L. Zhao, S. Wong, P.E. Minkler, D.H. Hwang, J.W Newman, W.T. Garvey. 2009. Plasma acylcarnitine profiles suggest incomplete fatty acid β-oxidation and altered TCA cycle activity in type 2 diabetes. J. Nutr. 139(6):1073-81.
• Shearer, G.C., W.S. Harris, T.L. Pedersen, J.W. Newman. 2009. Detection of omega-3 oxylipins in human plasma and response to treatment with omega-3 acid ethyl esters.  J. Lipid Res. [EPub Aug, 2009].
• Shearer, G.C., J.W. Newman. 2009. Impact of circulating esterified eicosanoids and other oxylipins on endothelial function. Curr. Atheroscler. Rep. 11(6):403-10.
• van Erk, M.J., S. Wopereis, C. Rubingh, T. van Vliet, E. Verheij, N.H.P. Cnubben, T. L. Pedersen, J.W. Newman, A.K.Smilde, J. van der Greef, H.F.J. Hendriks, B. van Ommen. 2010. Insight in modulation of inflammation in response to diclofenac intervention: a human intervention study. BMC Medical Genomics. 3(5).