UCLA Mitochondrial Metabolism and Bioenergetics Laboratory

Welcome to the Mitochondrial Metabolism and Bioenergetics Laboratory! Our group studies how energy metabolism and metabolic flexibility – the ability to switch between sugar, amino acid, and fatty acid oxidation in response to biological cues – can control cell function and fate. Ultimately, we aim to discover novel regulatory points of metabolism and develop mitochondrial proteins and pathways as therapeutic drug targets.

Research

Mitochondrial remodeling during macrophage activation

How metabolic flexibility can control cell physiology

Assay development and experimental guides

Recent Publications

Li JH, Zhou A, Lee CD, Shah SN, Ji JH, Senthilkumar V, Padilla ET, Ball AB, Feng Q, Bustillos GC, Riggan L, Greige A, Divakaruni AS, Annese F, Cooley Coleman JA, Skinner SA, Cowan CW, O'Sullivan TE (2024) MEF2C regulates NK cell effector functions through control of lipid metabolism Nature Immunology. 25(5):778-789. 38589619

Ball AB, Jones AE, Nguyễn KB, Rios A, Marx N, Hsieh WY, Yang K, Desousa BR, Kim KKO, Veliova M, Del Mundo ZM, Shirihai OS, Benincá C, Stiles L, Bensinger SJ, Divakaruni AS. (2024) Pro-inflammatory macrophage activation does not require inhibition of mitochondrial respiration bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024.05.10.593451. 38798678

Jones AE, Rios A, Ibrahimovic N, Chavez C, Bayley NA, Ball AB, Hsieh WY, Sammarco A, Bianchi AR, Cortez AA, Graeber TG, Hoffmann A, Bensinger SJ, Divakaruni AS. (2024) The metabolic cofactor Coenzyme A enhances alternative macrophage activation via MyD88-linked signaling bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024.03.28.587096. 38585887

Lab News

Congrats to our UCLA Class of 2024!

June, 2024

We want to wish a big congrats to our three undergraduate students who are graduating, Kaitlyn, Amy, and Beza! We are so thankful for all your hard work and dedication in lab and are excited to see what you accomplish next. We wish you the best of luck in your next adventures of graduate school and beyond!

Congrats PhD Candidate, Nataly!

May, 2024

Congrats to Nataly for passing your qualifying exam and advancing to candidacy! We are excited to see all your will accomplish in lab for these next few years!

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