Research Program Overview
The unifying theme in the research program in Miller’s laboratory is the role of lipid metabolism and oxidation in fundamental biologic processes and in development of human disease. The discovery of an oxidized lipoprotein function in activating toll-like receptors (TLRs), made in our lab, has connected lipoprotein metabolism with inflammation in atherosclerosis. We pioneered the use of zebrafish in studying vascular lipid accumulation and inflammation and created new transgenic zebrafish lines with lipid abnormalities and with genetic reporters to detect oxidized lipids. This work led to discoveries of novel functions of lipid and cholesterol metabolism in regulation of vascular and neuro inflammation, neuropathic pain and angiogenesis.
