PROJECTS

Finish a marathon or eat all the delicious food while keeping a six-pack, I will be providing the means, not the judgement

Prolonged inactivity, bed rest or months spent in space take a heavy toll on our muscles. They start to become weaker and it gets progressively harder to restore their original strength without unwanted inflammation as a side effect. I am looking for ways to both slow down the muscle degeneration and speed up the regrowth.

I am interested in regulation of blood sugar and ways how to use the knowledge to improve the development of drugs to treat diabetes.

The answer might be hidden in what we call The Dark Side of the genome.

We always think of neurons as the only important cells in our brain. But brain is a complex organ, with its own metabolic needs that are catered to by different cell types. Among them, astrocytes are the new hype.

The benefits of exercise are many. In these projects we try to uncover mediators of the positive adaptations to exercise to combat obesity.

When you go hiking in the mountains, or try to catch a bus that is just departing, you body has to deal with insufficient supply of oxygen. In addition to pathways described in recent Nobel prize awards, we have discovered new players that could be used in development of treatments for conditions where oxygen supply is important such as stroke.

How nerves communicate to metabolic tissues such as muscle and fat. This project aims to understand how metabolic disease or exercise adaptation affect our sensory nerves.

Let’s find a way to help patients with fatty liver disease by understanding the molecular mechanisms behind disease development!

Communication amongst organ systems is vital to keep everything in balance—sensory neurons and adipose tissue (fat) are no different. We think that the communication between sensory neurons and adipose tissue in obesity and diabetes is not working properly, and thus contributing to the metabolic dysfunction seen in these patients.

Overtraining is a condition where the body and mind no longer recover fully between workouts, leading to a downward spiral in both performance and well-being. Athletes often describe feeling physically weaker, mentally exhausted, unmotivated, but a key unanswered question is what comes first: does the brain burn out before the muscles, or do stressed muscles send distress signals that affect mood and cognition?

Heart failure is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, yet we still don’t fully understand why the heart gradually loses its ability to pump effectively. We are trying to understand the biological processes that drive this decline.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating disease in which the motor neurons that control movement gradually die, leading to muscle weakness, paralysis, and ultimately loss of vital functions like breathing. Although the brain and spinal cord are directly affected, muscles themselves play a critical role in keeping motor neurons healthy through a constant exchange of molecular signals. 

Tissue fibrosis—the excessive buildup of scar-like connective tissue—is a major driver of organ dysfunction in a wide range of diseases, from heart and lung failure to liver cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease. In skeletal muscle, fibrosis stiffens the tissue, disrupts normal contraction, and accelerates the decline seen in injuries, chronic diseases, and aging.

Neuroinflammation—once thought to be a minor side effect of brain disease—is now recognized as a powerful driver of both neurodegeneration and mental health disorders. Yet we still know surprisingly little about how inflammatory signals arise in the brain, which cells initiate them, and how they disrupt neural circuits over time.

Adipose tissue is far more dynamic than its reputation as “fat storage” suggests—it constantly decides whether to store excess calories or burn them off as heat through a process called non-shivering thermogenesis.

Muscle atrophy—whether caused by aging, long-term bedrest, disuse, chronic illness, or even common medications—is a major but often overlooked threat to health and independence. As muscles shrink and weaken, people become more vulnerable to falls, hospitalization, and loss of mobility, creating a cascade of medical and social consequences.