We're approximately 70 percent water, yet a number of the nutrients we rely on to keep us healthy are hydrophobic, meaning they are poorly soluble in water and therefore can't easily get from one place to another in our bodies. The answer, says DNS associate professor Noa Noy , is a very specialized process in which water soluble proteins act as blood borne taxis to literally ferry the nutrient molecules from one point to another. Then they get off at the point where the body needs them. Noy joined the DNS faculty in 1992 after nine years at the Cornell Medical School in New York City. Vitamin A derivatives are extremely versatile, finding use in the treatment of various cancers and in conjunction with other therapies to treat a form of leukemia.
Retinoic acid is a popular topical treatment for acne, psoriasis, and other skin disorders.
But to most people, vitamin A is best known as an important element in the vision process. One of Noy's interests is how vitamin A molecules, or retinoids, are transported from one location to another in the eye. More specifically, she wants to learn how the retinoids know to separate from their carrier proteins at the location in the eye where they're needed. She says it's one of the few mysteries left in fully understanding human vision. We know the molecular events in the cycle in detail.