Education:

• B.S., 1979, School of Pharmacy at Taipei Medical College, Taiwan.
• M.S., 1981, Drexel University
• PhD, 1983, Drexel University
• PostDoc, 1989, UCLA

Department: Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Research Interests:

Info Not Available

Research Summary:

My research program has been focusing on the role of type II receptors in the liver. These nuclear receptors usually form hetero-dimers with retinoid x receptor (RXR) to exert their effects. Type II nuclear receptors include principally subfamily 1, for example the RXR (retinoid x receptor), PXR (pregnane x receptor), PPAR (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor), RAR (retinoic acid receptor), VDR (vitamin D receptor) etc. Many of these nuclear receptors play pivotal roles in xenobiotic and endobiotic biotransformation and thus have become important therapeutic targets. My lab has been studying the roles of nuclear receptors in regulating liver health and diseases. Since RXRa is abundantly expressed in the liver and is essential for other nuclear receptors to function, we generated a liver-specific RXRa-deficient mouse model. Using this model, we identified the novel role of RXRa-mediated pathways in lipid, carbohydrate, xenobiotic, and amino acid metabolism and homeostasis. In addition, we discovered other novel roles of hepatic RXRa in alcohol detoxification, alcohol and non-alcohol induced steatosis and steatohepatitis as well as liver regeneration. These findings unequivocally established the functional significance of hepatic nuclear receptor signaling in regulating liver physiology and pathology.

Lab Members:

Sidhartha Hazari, Huixin Liu, Ying Hu, Yuqi He, Chuangyu Cao, Fan Yang, Mingli Peng, Thinh Chau, Irene Ly, Jessica Tsuei

Funding Sources: NCI, NIDDK
PubMed listing