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Clinton Van't Land, PhD

  • Director, Metabolic Core
  • Senior Staff Scientist

Dr. Van’t Land is a Senior Staff Scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Division of Genetic and Genomic Medicine and serves as the Director of the Rangos Metabolic Core Facility. Dr. Van’t Land received his undergraduate training at the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology in Minneapolis, MN and received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He completed post-doctoral training at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) before he began a career as a senior scientist in the pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism group at Alcon Laboratories, Inc. in Fort Worth, TX.

Dr. Van’t Land moved to the University of Pittsburgh and joined the Vockley Lab as a Senior Staff Scientist in 2017 and became the Director of the Rangos Metabolic Core Facility in 2019. Dr. Van’t Land's core facility provides Instrument Services for 1) Targeted Metabolomics or analysis of biomarkers extracted from biological fluids, cell cultures, and tissues using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), 2) Cell Bioenergetics (energy metabolism) in “living” cells using a Seahorse® Analyzer, and 3) analysis of biomarkers or metabolic pathway intermediates using HPLC with 3 detector options (ECD, UV-VIS, FLR). The Metabolic Core Facility is a research resource in support of the analytical needs of investigators involved in the study of energy metabolism, metabolic pathways, and cellular metabolic function with a focus on the role of mitochondrial metabolism in the pathogenesis of fatty acid oxidation disorders, kidney injury, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and other diseases.

Education & Training

  • BS, Chemistry, University of Minnesota, 1986
  • PhD, Organic Chemistry, University of Washington, 1992
  • Postdoctorate, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, 1992-1994

Selected Publications

Wang H, Lu J, Stevens T, Roberts A, Mandel J, Avula R, Ma B, Wu Y, Wang J, Van’t Land C, Finkel T, Vockley J, Airik M, Airik R, Muzumdar R, Gong Z, Torbenson M, Prochownik E. Premature aging and reduced cancer incidence associated with near-complete body-wide Myc inactivation. Cell Rep. 2023 Aug 29; 42(8): 112830 doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112830 PMCID: PMC10591215

Karunanidhi A, Basu S, Zhao XJ, D'Annibale O, Van't Land C, Vockley J, Mohsen AW. Heptanoic and medium branched-chain fatty acids as anaplerotic treatment for medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency. Mol Genet Metab. 2023;140(3):107689. Epub 20230825. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2023.107689. PubMed PMID: 37660571.

Zhao XJ, Mohsen AW, Mihalik S, Solo K, Basu S, Aliu E, Shi H, Kochersberger C, Karunanidhi A, Van't Land C, Coughlan KA, Siddiqui S, Rice LM, Hillier S, Guadagnin E, DeAntonis C, Giangrande PH, Martini PGV, Vockley J. Messenger RNA rescues medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency in fibroblasts from patients and a murine model. Hum Mol Genet. 2023;32(14):2347-56. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddad076. PubMed PMID: 37162351; PMCID: PMC10321387.

Zhao XJ, Mohsen AW, Mihalik S, Solo K, Aliu E, Shi H, Basu S, Kochersperger C, Van't Land C, Karunanidhi A, Coughlan KA, Siddiqui S, Rice LM, Hillier S, Guadagnin E, Giangrande PH, Martini PGV, Vockley J. Synthetic mRNA rescues very long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency in patient fibroblasts and a murine model. Mol Genet Metab. 2023;138(1):106982. Epub 20221223. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2022.106982. PubMed PMID: 36580829; PMCID: PMC9877169.

D'Annibale OM, Phua YL, Van't Land C, Karunanidhi A, Dorenbaum A, Mohsen AW, Vockley J. Treatment of VLCAD-Deficient Patient Fibroblasts with Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor delta Agonist Improves Cellular Bioenergetics. Cells. 2022;11(17). Epub 20220824. doi: 10.3390/cells11172635. PubMed PMID: 36078043; PMCID: PMC9454759.

Karunanidhi A, Van't Land C, Rajasundaram D, Grings M, Vockley J, Mohsen AW. Medium branched chain fatty acids improve the profile of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates in mitochondrial fatty acid beta-oxidation deficient cells: A comparative study. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2022;45(3):541-56. Epub 20220202. doi: 10.1002/jimd.12480. PubMed PMID: 35076099; PMCID: PMC9090965.

ORCID Record

Academic and Research Interests

Dr. Van’t Land serves as director of The University of Pittsburgh’s Rangos Metabolic Core Facility; a research resource in support of the analytical needs of investigators involved in the study of energy metabolism, metabolic pathways, and cellular metabolic function from animal tissues, biological fluids, and cell cultures with a focus on the role of mitochondrial metabolism in the pathogenesis of cancer, obesity, heart disease, fatty acid oxidation disorders, kidney injury, and other diseases. The Metabolic Core provides Instrument Services for analysis of 1) endogenous metabolic pathway intermediates or biomarkers from biological fluids, cell cultures, and tissues using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), 2) energy metabolism (cell bioenergetics) in “living” cells using a Seahorse® Analyzer, and 3) biomarkers/metabolites to quantitate pathway intermediates using HPLC with 3 detector options (ECD, UV-VIS, FLR).

Research Interest Keywords

  • Rangos Core Facility
  • Metabolic Core
  • Targeted Metabolomics
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Seahorse Analyzer
  • Acylcarnitine profiling
  • Amino Acids
  • HPLC ECD UV FLR Detectors
  • SAM SAH assay (methionine pathway)
  • Cell Bioenergetics
  • Energy metabolism