I lead and mentor a team of junior cardiovascular researchers, including undergraduate and graduate students, to pursue the following ambitious goals:1. Reprogram cell type-specific metabolism to reduce atherosclerosis-associated mortality.2. Develop novel peptides and proteins to ameliorate glucocorticoid-induced cardiotoxicity.

Owens LabRobert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research CenterPrimary project: Testing the original hypothesis that perivascular cell metabolism can be exploited to improve atherosclerotic lesion stability, and subsequently prevent heart attack and stroke. My first 'first author' manuscript from this project was recently accepted for publication at Nature Metabolism.o Developed and implemented extensive and detailed cell-based metabolic analyseso Used lineage-tracing to track smooth muscle and endothelial cell phenotypic switching in vivoo Used single-cell RNA sequencing to profile smooth muscle cell phenotypic transitions within lesionso Determined contributions of bioenergetic pathways towards smooth muscle phenotypic transitions in vitroo Currently testing the roles of smooth muscle aerobic glycolysis and oxidative metabolism in vivo using transgenic miceSecondary project: Develop a bioinformatic tool to compare and contrast the transcriptomes of smooth muscle cells manipulated in vitro and smooth muscle cells undergoing atherosclerosis-associated phenotypic transitions in vivo.Tertiary project: Testing the hypothesis that anti-inflammatory signaling in vascular smooth muscle, such as through the glucocorticoid receptor pathway, inhibits fibrous cap formation and, consequently, plaque stability.Additional project: Testing the hypothesis that myofibroblast-like cells of different origins depend on different combinations of metabolic and energetic pathways to produce distinct extracellular matrix compositions.

Leitinger LabDepartment of PharmacologyThesis project: Determining the effect of lipid oxidation products on macrophage function, focusing on changes to cellular metabolism in the context of adipose tissue inflammation and obesity-driven insulin resistance.Developed LC-MS method to identify and quantify phospholipid species from mouse and human tissues. Designed, executed, and analyzed targeted and global cell- and animal-based experiments.As a graduate student, I supervised, trained, and led a group of 3 undergraduate and 1 graduate students to design, execute, and analyze molecular- and cell-based experiments, resulting in 4 first-author publications and numerous awards. Of these awards, in 2017 I received the prestigious Larry Oberley Young Investigator Award, for having one of the top two scored presentations at the annual SfRBM conference, the premiere venue for redox and metabolism research. Furthermore, in 2018 I was presented the distinguished Michael J Peach Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Finally, I initiated research collaborations related to cancer, immunology, and ophthalmology, resulting in 12 co-authored publications.

Hands on urology...