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

DeSousa BR, Kim KO, Jones AE, Ball AB, Hsieh WY, Swain P, Morrow DH, Brownstein A, Ferrick D, Shirihai OS, Neilson A, Nathanson D, Rogers G, Drank B, Murphy A, Affourtit C, Bensinger SJ, Stiles L, Romero N, Divakaruni AS (2023) Calculation of ATP production rates using the Seahorse XF Analyzer EMBO Reports. Online ahead of print.

Yan T, Julio AR, Villanueva M, Jones AE, Ball AB, Boatner LM, Turmon AC, Nguyễn KB, Yen SL, Desai HS, Divakaruni AS, & Backus KM. (2023) Proximity-labeling chemoproteomics defines the subcellular cysteinome and inflammation-responsive mitochondrial redoxome. Cell Chemical Biology. Online ahead of print. 37419112

Hazim RA, Paniagua AE, Tang L, Yang Y, Kim KKO, Stiles L, Divakaruni AS, Williams DS. (2022) Vitamin B3, nicotinamide, enhances mitochondrial metabolism to promote differentiation of the retinal pigment epithelium. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 298(9): 102286

Lab News

Anthony Continues to Rake it Up!

July, 2021

Congratulations to Anthony for earning a Dissertation Year Fellowship and Summer Mentored Research Fellowship. Well done!

Nataly and Andréa Join the Lab!

June, 2021

We’re growing! We are thrilled to welcome two new graduate students to our group — both are members of the Pharmacology home Area of UCLA’s Graduate Program in Biosciences.