Julie M. Fagan

Associate Professor Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Department of Animal Sciences Office 109 Bartlett Hall Tel: 848-932-8354 Fax: 732-932-6996 fagan@rci.rutgers.edu

Current Research

I have redirected my focus of research from studying proteases and their inhibitors in health and disease (see examples of prior research below), to 1) the Human-Animal Bond; 2) the breakdown of food and agricultural waste and other organic feedstocks to biofuel; 3) obesity and the lack of regulation of food intake.

1) Companion Animal Research: Areas of research interest include understanding animal emotion and the Human-Animal bond, and how companion animals improve quality of life. Under development is an experiential emotional intelligence learning program that utilizes the power of the human-animal bond to rehabilitate our very large population of at-risk youth and to assist in the treatment of individuals with behavioral health issues.

2) Biomass to Biofuel: It’s difficult to comprehend just how much food we throw away. At Rutgers, dining hall services throws away over one ton per day of food waste. In the US, food scraps alone contribute to ~15% of the total waste going into landfills; with about 30% of the waste that we produce being “biomass”. These organic materials could easily be diverted away from landfills and produce renewable energy and organic compost. I am involved in a) analyzing the energy content of food, agricultural waste and other biomass for conversion into biomethane, b) producing compressed natural gas from waste biomass using anaerobic digestion, c) examining the infrastructure development for CNG vehicles and fuels, and d) exploring the challenges and opportunities of locating anaerobic digesters in the urban fringe to convert food and animal waste from farms, grocery stores and food establishments into biomethane and high quality compost.

3) Obesity and the (lack of) regulation of food intake: Over the past few decades, “junk” food has become more and more prevalent in the American diet. As a result, the rate of obesity has skyrocketed. Many low-fat and “diet” foods and drinks containing non-nutritive sweeteners have come on the market to help curb obesity. However, obesity has only further escalated and some have actually ascribed that Aspartame, the primary non-nutritive sweetener in diet soda, induces overeating of high calorie foods. Experiments are being conducted to determine the effects of aspartame and junk food diets on body weight, food cravings, mortality rate and on the potential pathological effects on vital organs.

Education & Developing Tomorrows Leaders

Our educational system is geared toward the high achieving students that are motivated by grades to learn; enabling them to pursue their dream. A major problem with education today is that educators fail to engage the “other” students. The structured classroom setting leaves little room for student creativity, leadership and commitment to society. Students need to find/identify their passions and given the space and motivation to be creative. It is when students realize their potential to succeed, that they become empowered to achieve in society. My colloquium courses are structured for success by providing students with the framework to gain a thorough understanding of societal issues and then engaging them through problem-solving community service projects.

Topics in Companion Animal Issues:

Experience

Education

Publications relating to Obesity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ercZweQDS8

Effects of Aspartame and a High Fat Diet on Food Intake in Rats
Julie M. Fagan, Ph.D., Ammar Karim, Joseph Ferrigno, and Alexis K. Roldan, in preparation.

The Effects of Aspartame Consumption on Obesity and Overeating in Rats
Dan O’Sullivan, Alexis K. Roldan, and Julie M. Fagan, Ph.D., in preparation.

Effects of Aspartame on Food Preference in Rats Given a Junk Food Diet
Alexis K. Roldan, Dan O’Sullivan, and Julie M. Fagan, Ph.D., in preparation.
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Mortality Rates and Pathology in Rats Fed a Junk Food Diet with and without Aspartame, a non-nutritive Sweetener. Alexis Roldan, and Julie M. Fagan, Ph.D, in preparation.

Representative Publications on Proteases in Health and Disease

Fagan JM, Rex SE, Hayes-Licitra SA, Waxman L. 1999
L-Arginine reduces right heart hypertrophy in hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. Biochem.Biophys Res Commun 254:100-103.

Fagan JM, etal.1999 Postranslational modifications of cardiac and skeletal muscle proteins by reactive oxygen species after burn injury in the rat. Annals of Surgery 229:106-114.

Tiao G, Fagan JM, Roegner V, Lieberman M, Wang J-J, Fischer JE, Hasselgren PO. 1996 Energy-ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis during sepsis is regulated by glucocorticoids. J Clin Invest 97(2):339-348

Fagan JM, Hasselgren PO, etal.1996 Sepsis increases oxidatively damaged proteins in skeletal muscle. Arch Surg 131:1326-1331; discussion 1331-1332.

Strack PR, Waxman L, Fagan, JM. 1996 Activation of the multicatalytic endopeptidase by oxidants. Effects on enzyme structure. Biochemistry 35:7142-7149.

Kirtikara K, Schaich KM, Fagan JM, Frenkel C.1995 A lignin peroxidase assay. J Microbiol Meth 23:253-259.

Fagan JM, Waxman L.1992 Characterization of the ATP-independent pathway in RBCs that degrades oxidant-damaged hemoglobin. J Biol Chem 267:23015-23022.

Fagan JM, Waxman L.1991 Purification of a protease in red blood cells that degrades oxidatively-damaged hemoglobin. Biochem J 277:779-786.

Waxman L, Fagan JM, Goldberg AL.1987 Resolution of two high molecular weight proteases in reticulocytes; one of which requires ATP and ubiquitin conjugation. J Biol Chem 262:2451-2457.

Fagan JM, Waxman L, Goldberg AL.1987 Skeletal muscle and liver contain a soluble ATP+Ub-dependent proteolytic system. Biochem J 243:335-343.

Waxman L, Fagan JM.1987 Mammalian cells have multiple pathways for degrading proteins. In Burgess RR (ed) Protein purification: micro to marco. Alan R Liss New York 459-473.

Fagan JM, Waxman L, Goldberg AL. 1986 Red blood cells contain a pathway for the degradation of oxidized hemoglobin that does not require ATP or ubiquitin. J Biol Chem 261:5705-5713.

Fagan JM, Goldberg AL.1986 Inhibitors of protein and RNA synthesis cause a rapid block in prostaglandin production at the prostaglandin synthetase step. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83:2771-2775.

Waxman L, Fagan, JM, Tanaka K, Goldberg AL.1985 A soluble ATP-dependent system for protein degradation from MEL cells: evidence for a protease which requires ATP hydrolysis but not ubiquitin. J Biol Chem 260:11994-12000.

Useful Links

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