Yiliang Chen

We study how macrophage metabolism pathways (e.g. fatty acid metabolism, glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation) are integrated within macrophages to determine their activation in various chronic inflammatory conditions involving atherosclerosis, diabetes, and obesity. We found that many chronic inflammatory diseases are associated with chronic metabolic reprogramming and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production. We are using both in vitro and in vivo mice models to examine the molecular mechanisms leading to chronic macrophage activation.