Peijian He
Georgia State University, GA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Fatty liver disease is now the most common liver disease in the United States and worldwide. Its formal name is metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
Biochemistry
- Topics
metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
fatty liver disease
steatohepatitis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Test whether losing frataxin, a mitochondrial iron-handling protein, causes ferroptosis (iron-driven cell death) and liver injury in MASLD mouse models, and whether restoring frataxin prevents this damage.
- Identify a ferroptosis-specific mechanism that sets off inflammation in the liver when frataxin is deficient in models of MASLD.
- Determine how free iron overload inside mitochondria leads to fat damage (lipid peroxidation) in the cell's outer membrane, using real-time confocal fluorescence imaging of loosely bound iron.
- Test whether ER stress, the protein-folding compartment's response to overload, drives frataxin breakdown in fatty livers of mice and humans, and map frataxin changes across MASLD disease stages.
More about the research
It ranges from simple fat buildup in the liver to inflammation, scarring (fibrosis) and cirrhosis. Treatment options are limited because it is still unclear what drives the disease forward. One strong lead is the mitochondria, the cell's energy-producing compartments. When they fail, liver cells handle fat poorly, build up damaging reactive molecules (oxidative stress) and die. Why mitochondria fail in MASLD remains unknown.
Why it matters
Fatty liver disease affects a large share of people worldwide and has few treatments. If frataxin loss proves to drive iron-dependent liver cell death, frataxin levels, mitochondrial iron overload, or the ER stress that lowers frataxin could become targets for new therapies. Such therapies might slow the progression from fatty liver to inflammation and scarring in patients with MASLD.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Zhenyu Zhong
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Define how obesity-associated loss of nerve–immune communication in the liver contributes to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), using complementary mouse models and human liver specimens.
Xiaotao Zhang
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Estimate recruitment, retention and diet adherence in adults with MASLD and F2–F3 fibrosis, verifying adherence with plasma pipecolic acid, a blood marker of bean intake, within a randomized crossover trial.
Philipp Scherer
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Physiology
Adjust insulin signaling only in mouse fat cells, by lowering insulin receptor levels on demand, switching on an artificial insulin receptor, or manipulating the signaling brake PTEN. Measure the effects on whole-body metabolism.
The school
Georgia State University: 9 labs on PI Pages, $241M a year on research, 300 research doctorates a year.
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