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.

My academic knowledge and professional experiences were obtained from research in the field of bioinformatics and molecular biology targeting inflammation-associated metabolic disorders, fibrosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and cancers. I mainly focus on developing a Machine Learning (ML)-based diagnostic model for inflammation-associated metabolic diseases. Ultimately, I aim to solve critical and basic concerns about the junction of gene regulation and host cellular responses, using state-of-art wet and dry technologies.

Nuclear receptor signaling operates as a molecular gene switch and I have pioneered precision knock-in animal model to uncouple the OFF function of nuclear receptors away from the ON function. My research focuses on how these repressive gene regulations can drive the biological control circuits in multiple human diseases, including infertility, cancers, and metabolic syndrome.

Corina Antal is working on identifying novel therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer.

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.

I’m currently expanding and improving upon our human islet-like organoid (HILO) platform as a novel cell therapy-based approach for treating type 1 diabetes (Nature, 586: 606-11, 2020). I differentiate various iPSCs/ESCs to generate functional organoids, which is further paired with an immune shielding regimen to establish immune-evasiveness in vivo.

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.

My work is focused on dissecting the molecular basis of insulin resistance.