Research Description
The Stahl Lab
The overarching goal of our laboratory is to advance human health by re-engineer lipid fluxes in the context of obesity-related disorders to protect certain tissues, such as the liver, from detrimental effects of ectopic lipid deposition and to generate metabolically highly active tissues that can serve as a save destination for excess fatty acids. To this end, we are investigating molecular mechanisms governing lipid uptake, particularly for fatty acids and CoQ, hepatobiliary diseases, liver cancer, and adipocyte biology. Toward the latter, we have been working on novel tissue-engineering based approaches to expand and activate brown adipose fat. Further, to facilitate the assessment of altered nutrient fluxes, we have been developing and testing novel bioluminescent imaging approaches to quantitatively assess macro- and micronutrients in vivo and have been working as part of a multidisciplinary team toward modeling human metabolic function and disease using iPSC-derived microphysiological devices, a.k.a. organs-on-a-chip, for adipocytes, hepatocytes, and islets.