{"id":12794,"date":"2026-04-28T08:45:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/?p=12794"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:33:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:33:32","slug":"discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We congratulate UWM Investigator: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/biomedical-sciences-healthcare-administration\/directory\/liedhegner-elizabeth\/\">Assistant Professor Elizabeth Liedhegner<\/a><\/strong>, School of Biomedical Sciences &amp; Health Care Administration and UWM Co-Investigator:<a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/about\/directory\/silvaggi-nicholas\/\"> <strong>Professor Nicholas Silvaggi<\/strong><\/a>, Department of Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry as the recipients of a Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) for their research &#8220;Understanding the role of Sterol Carrier Protein 2 (SCP-2) in lipid metabolism: toward structure-based design of SCP-2 inhibitors as tools to investigate function.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sterol carrier protein 2 (SCP-2) is a ubiquitous protein, homologs of which are produced in mammals, insects, yeast, bacteria, and archaea. In mammals, SCP-2 is expressed in multiple tissues including the liver, intestinal tract, and brain, where it participates in intracellular lipid trafficking and metabolism. For example, SCP-2 has been shown to be a key player in endocannabinoid signaling in the brain, and in the uptake, oxidation, and esterification of fatty acids in the liver. We are pursuing a comprehensive X-ray structural characterization of the complexes between multiple SCP-2 homologs (human, rabbit, mouse, rat, dolphin, and cow) and as many endocannabinoid, sterol, fatty acid, fatty acyl-CoA, and phospholipid\/sphingolipid ligands as possible. The hydrophobic binding site of insect SCP-2 was identified long ago, but there are no structures of ligand-bound mammalian SCP-2 proteins. Answering questions about which ligands SCP-2 binds, how tightly it binds them, and what downstream effects result from these interactions will require potent SCP-2 ligands for use as probes. The eventual development of such tight-binding probes of SCP-2 will require detailed structural knowledge of how known SCP-2 ligands bind to the protein. This is a current knowledge gap in the field that we are working to fill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Information about UWM&#8217;s Office of Research, Internal Grant Programs can be read at the following link: <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/officeofresearch\/ords\/internal-grant-programs\/\">https:\/\/uwm.edu\/officeofresearch\/ords\/internal-grant-programs\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We congratulate UWM Investigator: Assistant Professor Elizabeth Liedhegner, School of Biomedical Sciences &amp; Health Care Administration and UWM Co-Investigator: Professor Nicholas Silvaggi, Department of Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry as the recipients of a Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) for their research &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":382,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[161,11,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-department-news-newsletter","category-news","category-newsletter"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We congratulate UWM Investigator: Assistant Professor Elizabeth Liedhegner, School of Biomedical Sciences &amp; Health Care Administration and UWM Co-Investigator: Professor Nicholas Silvaggi, Department of Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry as the recipients of a Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) for their research &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-28T13:45:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-29T13:33:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin Blackburn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin Blackburn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin Blackburn\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f1f91d5466fe8b8b9640a2e5295fbbdb\"},\"headline\":\"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry)\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-28T13:45:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-29T13:33:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":298,\"articleSection\":[\"Department News\",\"News\",\"Newsletter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/\",\"name\":\"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry) - Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-28T13:45:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-29T13:33:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f1f91d5466fe8b8b9640a2e5295fbbdb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/category\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/\",\"name\":\"Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry\",\"description\":\"College of Letters &amp; Science\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/chemistry\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f1f91d5466fe8b8b9640a2e5295fbbdb\",\"name\":\"Kevin Blackburn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/5ee407718458f85d4cfb1e3b0d9614a20aa55796a0180c17d55ffa1768f68309?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/5ee407718458f85d4cfb1e3b0d9614a20aa55796a0180c17d55ffa1768f68309?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/5ee407718458f85d4cfb1e3b0d9614a20aa55796a0180c17d55ffa1768f68309?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin Blackburn\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry)","og_description":"We congratulate UWM Investigator: Assistant Professor Elizabeth Liedhegner, School of Biomedical Sciences &amp; Health Care Administration and UWM Co-Investigator: Professor Nicholas Silvaggi, Department of Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry as the recipients of a Discovery and Innovation Grant (DIG) for their research &hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/","og_site_name":"Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry","article_published_time":"2026-04-28T13:45:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-29T13:33:32+00:00","author":"Kevin Blackburn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin Blackburn","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin Blackburn","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/#\/schema\/person\/f1f91d5466fe8b8b9640a2e5295fbbdb"},"headline":"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry)","datePublished":"2026-04-28T13:45:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-29T13:33:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/"},"wordCount":298,"articleSection":["Department News","News","Newsletter"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/","name":"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry) - Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-04-28T13:45:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-29T13:33:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/#\/schema\/person\/f1f91d5466fe8b8b9640a2e5295fbbdb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/discovery-and-innovation-grant-awarded-to-prof-liedhegner-biomedical-science-and-prof-silvaggi-biochemsitry\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/category\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Discovery and Innovation Grant awarded to Prof. Liedhegner (Biomedical Science) and Prof. Silvaggi (Biochemsitry)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/","name":"Chemistry &amp; Biochemistry","description":"College of Letters &amp; Science","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/#\/schema\/person\/f1f91d5466fe8b8b9640a2e5295fbbdb","name":"Kevin Blackburn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ee407718458f85d4cfb1e3b0d9614a20aa55796a0180c17d55ffa1768f68309?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ee407718458f85d4cfb1e3b0d9614a20aa55796a0180c17d55ffa1768f68309?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ee407718458f85d4cfb1e3b0d9614a20aa55796a0180c17d55ffa1768f68309?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin Blackburn"}}]}},"acf":[],"meta_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1777470097:382"],"_edit_last":["382"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1777469612"],"feat_img_video":[""],"feat_img_gallery":[""],"feat_img_caption":["feat-img-caption-on"],"breadcrumbs_display":["breadcrumbs-on"],"otp_nav_display":["otp-on-mobile"],"post_layout":["post-layout-theme"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["11"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["2"]},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 10:36:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/382"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12804,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12794\/revisions\/12804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}