Our Team
Et corrupti quasi aut soluta neque in molestias culpa eum omnis aliquam et quas aliquam. Et ratione optio est alias odio sit optio voluptatem tempore eligendi sed debitis iusto id libero praesentium rem omnis iure, Et corrupti quasi aut soluta neque in molestias culpa eum omnis aliquam et quas aliquam. Et ratione optio est alias odio sit optio voluptatem tempore eligendi sed debitis iusto id libero praesentium rem omnis iure
G. Andres Contreras
I am a veterinarian and adipose tissue biologist. My dairy practice experience includes tropical cow-calf operations, grazing dairy herds, and large dairy operations in the Midwest region of the US. My training includes a Large Dairy Internship Program, a Master’s degree in mastitis and milk quality, and a PhD in Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology at Michigan State University. My postdoctoral training on adipose tissue biology was at The Center for Integrative Metabolic and Endocrine Research (CIMER) at Wayne State University.
As adipose tissue biologist my expertise is on adipose depots’ remodeling during periods of acute or chronic stress such as periparturient negative energy balance and ketoacidosis. My research program is focused on the adaptations of adipose tissue to disease and negative energy balance and its implications to one health and on the effects of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases on the perivascular adipose tissue especially the development of adipocytes and their function. Current areas of active research in my laboratory include a) the effects of the interactions between adipose tissue immune cells and adipocytes on lipolytic and lipogenic responses around parturition and b) determining the mechanisms by which vascular mechanical forces alter the capacity of perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) to exert its vasoactive function and direct fat cells function.
Madison Smith
Hi, I’m Madison. I’m from Boyne City, Michigan and first began working in the Contreras lab as an undergraduate student in 2017. I completed my degree in Animal Science in 2019 and began my studies in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s dual DVM-PhD program in 2020. While I have been involved in a wide range of projects since starting in Dr. Contreras’ lab, my PhD research focuses on improving periparturient health of dairy cows by altering lipid mobilization and adipogenesis by way of the endocannabinoid system.
Miguel Chirivi
Grew up in Bojacá, Colombia where his family owned a small herd of Normade cattle. In 2018, Chirivi completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. In 2019, he joined Dr. Andres Contreras’ lab at Michigan State University and began studying adipose tissue in transition dairy cows.
In the fall of 2019, Chirivi started his PhD Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine under the supervision of Dr. Contreras. His research currently focuses on the effects of endotoxin on lipolytic dysregulation in adipose tissue of dairy cows.
Ursula Abou-Rjeileh
Ursula Abou-Rjeileh was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. She moved to Michigan in 2015 to attend Michigan State University. She joined the Contreras Lab as an undergraduate research assistant in 2019 studying the effect of oleic acid supplementation on lipogenesis in cultured adipocytes.
After graduating from MSU in 2020 with a B.S in Animal Science, she joined the lab full time as a graduate research assistant. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanism behind oleic acid’s effect on lipid metabolism in bovine adipose tissue.
C. Javier Rendon
From Bogota, Colombia, Javier is a Ph.D. Student in Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology at MSU. Rendon’s research focuses on how the vascular mechanical forces generated during hypertension affect the biology of perivascular adipose tissues and their populations of adipocyte progenitors a known subset of stem cells.
Rendon received his Veterinary Medicine degree from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2018. During his DVM training, he became interested in basic sciences and molecular biology, which led him to join a research group in the same university working on stem cells. This process awoke an intense interest in him for stem cell biology given its importance for veterinary and human health. In 2019, he started working in Dr. Contreras’s Lab where his passion for research motivated him to pursue a Ph.D. degree. In 2020 he enrolled in the Comparative Medicine and Integrative Biology program to explore some unanswered questions that could help to understand a disease like hypertension that is experienced by most adults nowadays.