Titles

Director, Immunometabolism Initiative

Education

Boards

Recognition

Research Interests

The immune system is able to control the metabolism of many organ systems, and disruption of these immunometabolic pathways contributes to the development of metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. The Brestoff Lab’s research focuses on understanding how immune cells regulate the function of white, beige, and brown fat to maintain normal metabolism and support adaptation to physiologic challenges such as high-fat diet feeding, changes in environmental temperature, and fasting. We have a special interest in understanding a process called intercellular mitochondria transfer, its molecular mechanisms, and how it contributes to the maintaining the function of organ systems in health and disease (Cell Metabolism 2021, 2022a, 2022b; Nature 2023). We employ cutting-edge techniques in immunology, metabolism, and mitochondria biology to study the immunometabolic pathways that are required for metabolic health and that contribute to disease pathogenesis. Ultimately, our goal is to discover novel biological pathways that can be targeted therapeutically or that can be leveraged to develop new diagnostic tests. We have developed multiple technologies with real-world applications, including mitochondria transplantation for inherited mitochondrial diseases (Nature Metabolism, 2024) which is progressing into clinical trials, an immunology-focused diagnostic test that is currently in clinical use, a metabolic cage analytic tool called Clambake that was successfully licensed to a major industrial partner, and a novel anti-obesity drug that we are developing.

Selected Publications

Assistant

Dionne Brierton

Administrative Professional