My research area is cardiovascular biology. The lab is using an integrated (biochemical and physiological) and multi-level (isolated protein, cellular and in vivo) approach to comprehensively study heart function for the development of novel therapeutic treatments for heart disease. My research interests are understanding how various signaling pathways can modulate heart function and how these pathways are altered in disease. Currently, the lab is funded via multiple grants to investigate the effects of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and signaling lipids released from BAT (known as batokines) on the heart. We are also investigating the therapeutic potential of a novel compound developed here at OSU (EMEPO) for heart disease. Our studies on BAT, batokines and EMEPO are being tested in various pre-clinical murine models (myocardial infarction, pressure overload heart failure, diabetes, senescence, hypertrophy and hypertension) as well as failing and non-failing human heart tissue.