My research is mainly focused on mitochondrial energy metabolism, its role in physiology and disease, and the transcriptional regulation of mitochondrial functions.

I am interested in studying the epigenetic regulations in pancreatic tumor and stroma, and developing novel epigenetic modulating strategies as therapeutic approaches.

Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 (HNF4)-alpha and gamma were for long considered as orphan receptors, prior to the identification of linoleic acid as an endogenous reversible ligand, which reinforced the potential for these nuclear receptors as pharmaceutical targets. HNF4? dysregulation has been associated with colitis and colorectal cancer, however little is known about its intestine-restricted paralog HNF4-gamma, which my work will focus on.

I study the hormonal regulation mechanism of thermogenic fat differentiation.

Gene expression regulation by nuclear receptors is tightly controlled by transcriptional co-factors, which mediate the response to changes in physiology and disease state by turning gene expression up or down. My research focuses on understanding the transcriptional repression mechanism of oxidative nuclear receptors by their co-repressors, in the context of energy balance and metabolic diseases.