Mitchell A. Lazar, M.D., Ph.D.

Research Interest

The goal of the Lazar lab is to understand the transcriptional regulation of circadian rhythms and metabolism both in normal physiology and in  metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. The focus is on nuclear receptors and HDAC3-containing corepressor complexes, whose functions are interrogated using a combination of genomic, proteomic, bioinformatic, and metabolic phenotyping methods.  Of particular interest are the circadian REV-ERB nuclear receptors, which are transcriptional repressors that function in the circadian clock and coordinate biological rhythms of metabolism in liver, adipose, and other tissues. Another focus is on nuclear receptor PPARg, a key transcriptional link between obesity and diabetes which functions as the master regulator of adipocyte biology and whose ligands have potent antidiabetic activity. Nuclear receptors corepressors and HDAC3 are also of great interest as an integrators of the activities of nuclear receptors and other transcription factors, with tissue-specific functions that protect from challenges to the circadian, nutritional, and thermal environment.