Dr. Stacey Keenan completed her Ph.D at Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University (2019). She has spent several years examining lipid metabolism in both cellular and murine models. Her Ph.D studies were focused on characterizing the role of the protein perilipin 5 (PLIN5) in liver lipid and glucose metabolism. Specifically, she utilised radiometric techniques to assess lipid and glucose metabolism in various experimental models (e.g. in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo) with PLIN5 deletion or overexpression. Stacey also mastered the gold-standard technique of measuring tissue-specific insulin sensitivity using hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps and found liver specific PLIN5 deletion caused hepatic insulin resistance in mice. Dr. Keenan has been the chief investigator of several successful competitive research grants including the Diabetes Australia Research Trust (CIA, 2021, AI, 2020), the Jain Foundation (2023), and a highly prestigious Ideas Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (2023). Stacey was also awarded funding via the University of Melbourne Early Career Research Scheme. Stacey now heads a program of work in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology which seeks to understand how certain proteins in the body regulate fatty acid metabolism and their impact on metabolic disease progression.