Rio & Zeyneb
UCLA B.I.G
Undergraduate Summer Program 2016
Xia, Ugoma, & Ashok

Latest News

  1. Our multitissue single cell study of metabolic syndrome induced by high fructose or high fat high sucrose diets, co-led by Drs. Yen-Wei Chen and In Sook Ahn, is published in Cell Reports. This study revealed distinct cell type and molecular vulnerability and tissue crosstalk between hypothalamus, liver, adipose tissue, and small intestine between diets, and identified a central metabolic regulator, mt-Rnr2, in counteracting diet-induced metabolic syndrone.
  2. Congratulations to Michael Cheng and Zoe Zhao for both receiving the Dissertation Year Fellowship!
  3. Our collaborative work with Dr. Anabel Wang’s lab at City of Hope, entitled “Distinct Adipose Progenitor Cells Emerging with Age Drive Adipogenesis” was published in Science ! Our lab members Dr. Gaoyan Li is co-first author, and Zoe Zhao is third author.
  4. Our collaborative work with Dr. Patty Phelps at UCLA, entitled “Olfactory ensheathing cells from adult female rats are hybrid glia that promote neural repair” was published in eLife ! Our lab members Drs. Dan Ha and Yen-Wei Chen are coauthors.
  5. Watch UCLA QCBio webinar “Big data for novel diagnostics and therapeutics” featuring Drs. Alex Hoffman, Jennifer Wilson, Robert Damoiseaux, Xia Yang.

Integrative Multiomics and Systems Biology of Common Human Diseases


Research in our lab employs integrative multiomics and systems biology approaches to understand the molecular networks underlying common cardiometabolic disorders such as coronary artery disease, diabetes, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, brain disorders such as traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease, and the connections between cardiometabolic disorders and brain disorders.

Our research is built upon the hypothesis that the complex interactions between genetic (i.e., DNA variants) and environmental risk factors (e.g., diets, environmental pollutants) perturb specific gene networks which in turn induce variations in disease susceptibility and therapeutic response.

By developling and applying integrative multiomics and systems biology approaches that leverage genetic, transcriptomics, epigenomic, metabolomic, microbiome, and phenotypic data from human and rodent populations, we aim to identify causal molecular networks and key regulators that contribute to the development of human complex diseases and further utilize the disease networks to guide therapeutics. Details of our research are here.

Our lab has developed Mergeomics and Pharmomics tools for muti-omics data integration and drug repurposing, respectively. Details of these tools are here.

Our research is generously supported by JDRF and NIH NIDDK, NINDS, NIMH, NICHD, and NHLBI.

A disease network and key regulators. Figure credit: Jenny Cheng

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute