This event has been postponed. Please check back to the seminar series page for updates on his rescheduled visit.
Utpal Pajvani, MD, PhD
Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Endocrinology
Columbia University
Notch mediates hepatocyte-HSC crosstalk to induce fibrosis in NASH
Dr. Pajvani's lab is interested in uncoupling obesity from the resultant metabolic complications, including Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) and NAFLD/NASH, by study of the Notch signaling pathway. The Notch family of transmembrane receptors has been traditionally thought to regulate normal development and then remain quiescent unless deregulated in cancer. Contrary to this notion, his group found that Notch activity in liver is modulated by both physiologic (fasting/refeeding) and pathologic (insulin resistance) cues in mouse models of obesity. Dr. Pajvani's lab is now taking a systematic approach to discover how inappropriately reactivated Notch signaling in obesity gives rise to its metabolic complications.