Cellular Pathogenesis of Liver Disease

Cirrhosis and liver cancer are prominent and increasing causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In most cases, both cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma are the consequence of long-standing chronic inflammatory liver diseases such as viral hepatitis, alcohol-associated liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Our lab is focused on uncovering the mechanisms underlying inflammatory liver disease and understanding how this knowledge can be applied to the development of novel therapies. We have done extensive studies on HCV and alcohol-mediated liver injury investigating mechanisms leading to oxidative stress, mitochondrial injury pathways, viral-host interactions and innate immunity. Our lab focuses on cell biological approaches using cell culture systems, animal models and human samples but we have several clinical and translational studies involving patients with chronic hepatitis C, alcoholic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma.