My research focuses on the metabolic underpinnings of cardiovascular health and disease. This involves the critical examination of glycolysis, mitochondria, and other pathways of intermediary metabolism and the development of causal relationships between metabolic defects or signatures and cardiovascular (patho)physiology. Our current work focuses on:
• Understanding the mechanisms underlying diabetic dysfunction of stem cells and ways of optimizing metabolism to improve the success of cell therapy.
• Delineating how changes in glucose metabolism contribute to pathological hypertrophy caused by myocardial infarction.
• Identifying metabolic mediators of physiological cardiac growth, such as that caused by exercise or pregnancy.
• Developing new approaches for measuring and delineating the significance of changes in cellular metabolism as it relates to cardiac health, obesity, and diabetes.