Laboratory of Molecular Physiology and Chemical Genetics

Our laboratory is interested in understanding emergent properties of complex biological networks at a molecular level. Specifically, we are interested in determining how adaptive homeostatic or allostatic properties such as energy balance and metabolic set points arise in complex multicellular animals, and in the multitude of extrinsic and intrinsic parameters that influence such properties during the lifespan of an animal. Implicit in our studies is the goal of finding new preventive and therapeutic strategies for human diseases of allostatic dysregulation such as obesity and accelerated aging.

We employ the nematode C. elegans for our studies, an ideal model for systems-level analyses of energy balance networks and metabolic set-point regulation. We utilize a multidisciplinary approach using chemical biology, molecular genetics, proteomics and lipid profiling, pharmacology and neuroscience. The power of the C. elegans system allows the rapid discovery of new pathways that connect sensory function in the nervous system and other tissues, to metabolic actions in the periphery. Novel and conserved molecular candidates emerging from these studies will be tested in mammalian models. Our long-term goal is to understand the relative contributions of genetic, behavioral and environmental influences on complex physiological phenotypes.