Research

The Reilly Lab uses human discoveries to identify new mechanisms and treatment targets for heart disease. Funded research projects include:

Elucidation of Tissue-Specific Transcriptomic Profiles in Cardiometabolic Disease

  • Funding: R01-HL-113147 (PI: Reilly)
  • Goals: Translational genomic studies to apply deep RNAseq of human tissue and cells to identify novel transcriptomic variations and mechanisms of tissue-specific genetic dysfunction in cardiometabolic disease.

Translational Studies of ADAMTS7 a Novel GWAS Locus for Coronary Atherosclerosis

  • Funding: R01-HL-111694 (PI: Reilly)
  • Goals: Functional genomics of a locus for human coronary atherosclerosis. Define structure-function of ADAMTS7 interactions with target proteins, assess the effects of loss function and gain of function on mouse atherosclerosis and VSMC function, and interrogate non-synonymous variants discovered upon sequencing of ADAMTS7 in humans for potential loss and gain of function and for association with CAD.

Chemokines in Adipose Inflammation and Insulin Resistance

  • Funding: R01-DK-090505 (PI: Reilly)
  • Goals: Using mice models and human translation, we aim to determine whether the fractalkine (CX3CL1-CX3CR1) system has independent and/or synergistic actions with the CCR2 chemokine pathway in modulating adipose inflammation and its metabolic consequences.

Mentored Translational Research in Cardio-metabolic Disease

  • Funding: K24-HL107643 (PI: Reilly)
  • Goals: To augment Dr. Reilly’s scientific and mentoring skills and devote more time to mechanistic patient-oriented research (POR), and provide increased time and structure in mentoring new clinical investigator in the conduct of mechanistic POR, and pursue new innovative POR in order to generate a unique training environment and POR framework for mentoring young clinical investigator.

Statistical Methods for Transcriptome Profiling Using RNA Sequencing

  • Funding: R01-GM-108600 (PI: Li)
  • Goals: To allow biologists to better disentangle complex cellular circuitry, precisely related genomic sequence to gene regulation, and facilitate the translation of basic research findings into clinical studies of cardiovascular and eye diseases.
  • Role: Co-Investigator

Methods for High-dimensional Data in HIV/CVD Research

  • Funding: R01-HL107196 (PI: Foulkes)
  • Goals: This project aims to develop and evaluate statistical methods for analyzing high-dimensional genetic and immunological data at the intersection of HIV and CVD research.
  • Role: Co-Investigator

Macrophage-specific Function of GWAS CAD-associated LIPA Alleles in Atherosclerosis

  • Funding: NIH K99HL130574 (PI: Hanrui Zhang)
  • Goals: The goal of this project is to elucidate the role of LIPA and coronary artery diseases (CAD)-associated LIPA genetic variants in atherosclerosis using CRISPR/Cas gene editing, human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived macrophages, and murine model.

Functional Investigation of Adipose Long Intergenic Noncoding RNAs in Obesity

  • Funding: American Diabetes Association Postdoctoral Fellowship (PI: Xuan Zhang)
  • Goals: The goal of this project is to investigate the biological roles of human long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in adipocyte function and elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which these lincRNAs modulate adipose biology in obesity and metabolic disorders.

Human LincRNAs in Macrophage Biology

  • Funding: American Philosophical Society Daland Fellowship (PI: Ying Wang)
  • Goals: This project aimed to examine roles of top human macrophage activation-associated intergenic long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in modulating human macrophage phenotypes and cardiometabolic disease-related macrophage functions.