Position Title
Associate Professor
- Molecular Biosciences
Education:
- 1989, M.Sc., Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, Moscow, Russia
- 1991, D.V.M., Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology, Moscow, Russia
- 1999, Ph.D., Institute of Cell Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Russia
- 2004, Loyola Univeristy Medical Center, Chicago, IL
- 2006, American Heart Association Felowship, Chicago, IL
- 2019, Certificate, UC Davis Biomedical Engineering Enterpreneurship Academy, Davis, CA
Department: Molecular Biosciences
Research Interests:
Drug development, Heart Failure, Cardiac hypertrophy, Cardiac Metabolism, Cardiovascular signaling, Mitochondrial Function, Type 2 diabetes
Research Summary:
Our lab is focused on developing new therapeutics for lethal cardiomyopathy in Friedreich's Ataxia. To achieve this goal, we use clinically relevant animal models of disease and pharmaceutical interventions in combination with the state-of-the-art techniques. Friedreich's ataxia is a monogenic recessive ataxia caused by reduction of a single mitochondrial protein, frataxin. Although the name of Friedreich's ataxia refers to the neurodegenerative ataxia, most patients with Friedreich's ataxia die in their 30s from cardiac failure, caused by deficient frataxin expression in the heart. Currently, there is no FDA approved therapy for this devastating disease. The ultimate goal of this work is to investigate the signaling mechanisms which lead to the progression of ataxia, neurodegeneration and cardiac failure in Friedreich's ataxia, identify potential drug treatments which can ameliorate the development of disease and extend the life of affected individuals.
Additionally, we study effects of ketones and ketogenic diets on cardiac function in type 2 diabetes and heart failure. We also investigate the role of 18-kDa outer mitochondrial membrane transporter (TSPO) protein in the development of heart failure and test several TSPO antagonists on their ability to protect against heart failure and ischemia-reperfusion injury.