Laboratory of Neurometabolism and Neuroinflammation
The Yin Laboratory is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and the development of novel therapeutics against neurodegenerative diseases. A major focus of our research is on the role of lipid metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and its mechanistic interactions with mitochondrial dysfunction, neuroinflammation and major AD risk factors such as the APOE4 gene and the female sex. Built upon our recent findings, we propose a lipid-centric AD cascade that bridges the amyloid hypothesis, the mitochondrial hypothesis, and the APOE4 hypothesis of AD by their convergence at lipid metabolism. We are now actively developing novel disease-modifying AD therapeutics by restoring the lipid homeostasis in the degenerating brain. In addition, we are also interested in the role of the maternally inherited mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) in metabolically reprogramming the brain and modifying AD risks.