Welcome to the Brenna Lab home page!
The Brenna Lab is comprised of a diverse set of
backgrounds and interests, but is united around a common interest of using and
developing mass spectrometric techniques to investigate biological and
biomedical questions. Dr. Brenna is a Professor in the Division of
Nutritional Sciences and a member of the Graduate Fields of Chemistry and
Chemical Biology and of Geological Sciences at Cornell.
Current and former graduate students have originated from these
departments and from others, such as Food Science and Analytical Toxicology.
Research Interests
- Understanding
the physiological role of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA),
especially with respect to early development of the central nervous system
and the eye. These studies use 13C
tracers and high precision isotope ratio mass spectrometry.
- Developing
analytical methods for structural identification and quantification of
unsaturated fatty acids by GC/ion-trap.
- Developing
on-line methods for measuring high precision 13C/12C
intramolecular isotope ratio in small, biologically relevant molecules using
a home-built front end coupled to a commercial isotope ratio mass
spectrometer (IRMS). We also are pursing techniques for measuring
intramolecular 15N/14N ratios at high precision.
- Improving and
evaluating methods for IRMS data handling.
