Monica Lares

This project centers around the plant, Opuntia ficus-indica (aka prickly pear and nopales), which is native to Mexico and is present on the Mexican flag.  This plant has long been a part of Mexican cuisine.  It has been suggested that this plant can regulate blood glucose levels in diabetics and/or prevent diabetes.

Nopales have been shown to stabilized blood glucose levels in diabetics when consumed with a high carbohydrate breakfast (López-Romero, 2014).  Nopales have also been used as a natural method to treat waste water (Nouj, 2021).  We don’t quite understand either mechanism, but wonder if they are connected.  Questions we have considered are:

1. Can nopales inhibit the breakdown of carbohydrates to glucose?
2. Can something in nopales (mucilage) bind glucose?
3. Do nopales increase the uptake of glucose? (via glucose transporters)?
4. Do nopales increase flux through the pathways in which glucose leaves the body?
5. Do nopales regulate blood glucose levels by a mechanism similar to diabetes drugs?

In working to understand how nopales work we realize we need to identify compounds found in nopales, understand the structures and mechanisms of anti-diabetic drugs, identify what is in the mucilage, identify an assay we can use in lab to monitor the uptake of glucose into plasma. We have already begun to work on these avenues, but a goal is to narrow our research question and develop an appropriate assay.  Developing this research project is a way to show we value diverse forms of knowledge from students’ cultural communities. 

In addition to the research aspects of this project, I plan to including a service learning component, a community engagement component, and the discussion of diabetes is already a part of Metabolic Biochemistry.  Blending teaching, scholarly activities, and service components of this project not only helps to balance the responsibilities of a teacher-scholar at a public institution. Creating this new learning opportunity would allow me to assign projects that allow students to analyze problems that are relevant to while giving back to their own cultural communities.  We would also be doing research that would contribute to advancing knowledge about diverse cultural communities.  It would also show that we are engaging in service to advocate for the well-being of diverse cultural communities.  Students would also learn to communicate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.