Belovich studies liver disease treatments
By Amanda Campbell
Research by scientists at Cleveland State University may determine more efficient ways to treat certain liver diseases and leave laboratory mice looking for new jobs.
Dr. Joanne Belovich, interim director of the Applied Biomedical Engineering Program, is leading a sub-group of the Center for Modeling Integrated Metabolic Systems. She is working with four assistants to develop a computer model of the liver.
The model may become the primary tool for analyzing liver diseases and may replace mice as the method for testing effectiveness of medications on conditions such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
Belovich said the model would duplicate the physiology of the liver and can be manipulated with mathematical formulas. This will enable scientists to knock out genes and create an enzyme deficiency just as diseases do to a real liver.
A primary feature of the model allows researchers to alter the way glucose and fat metabolize in the liver, two of the complications of type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that can cause pathways of the liver to function improperly.
Belovich said the model can then be used to mimic how drugs affect the liver.
“Pharmaceutical companies will be able to use the model to narrow a list of drugs, and those that are successful in the model will go for further testing,” Belovich said. “Ultimately the model will become a tool for medical people to test potential remedies for diseases.”
Belovich has been working on the model for four years under a five year $11 million grant to Case Western Reserve University from National Institutes of Health.
Parts of the project were subcontracted to Cleveland State.
Other teams comprised of scientists from Cleveland State, Case Western and the Cleveland Clinic are developing models of the heart, brain, and skeletal muscle system.
In November, the group will apply for funding renewal for another five years.
Belovich plans to continue developing the model and testing its accuracy.
She hopes it will eventually help improve the quality of life for people with type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.