Contact Information:

Office: 340H EMRB 
Phone: 335-7578
Faculty Profile

Brief description of research:

Focus on my research program is to understand the role of fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) in regulating immune cell metabolism in chronic inflammation, obesity and obesity-associated diseases. FABPs constitute a family of small, highly homologous intracellular lipid chaperones that have been recognized as central regulators of both metabolic and inflammatory pathways. We have shown that adipose FABP (A-FABP) and epidermal FABP (E-FABP) play important roles in multiple inflammatory and metabolic diseases. However, the exact mechanisms underlying FABP-mediated lipid metabolism in immune cells remain to be determined. Currently, research in my laboratory strives to understand how FABPs, including A-FABP and E-FABP, regulate lipid metabolism and intracellular signal transduction pathways in different immune cells, to determine the mechanisms by which FABPs link lipid metabolism and complex diseases (obesity and obesity-associated diseases, including diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer development), and to screen specific small molecular regulators and neutralizing antibodies in modification of FABP activities for potential clinical applications.

3 most influential diabetes/obesity/metabolism publications:

• Jin R, Hao J, Yi Y, Yin D, Hua Y, Li X, Bao H, Han X, Egilmez NK, Sauter ER, Li B. Dietary fats high in linoleic acids impair anti-tumor T cell responses by inducing E-FABP-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction. Cancer Research, 2021 Oct 15;81(20):5296-5310.
• Li B, Hao J, Zeng J, Sauter ER. Snaphshot: FABP functions. Cell, 2020 Aug 20;182(4):1066-1066.
• Hao J, Zhang Y, Yan XF, Yan F, Sun Y, Zeng J, Waigel S, Yin Y, Fraig MM, Egilmez NK, Suttles J, Kong M, Liu S, Cleary MP, Sauter E, Li B. Circulating Adipose Fatty Acid Binding Protein Promotes Obesity-Associated Breast/Mammary Tumor Development. Cell Metabolism, 2018, Nov 6;28(5):689-705.