Babak Razani, MD, PhD Laboratory

New year resolution to post more! Proud of @yushengyeh & @RazaniLab members for their @atvbahajournals review this month comparing/contrasting newly discovered #adipocyte #lipolysis via #lysosome #LIPA vs. known cytoplasm #ATGL in #cardiometabolic #CVD 💪 ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/AT…

🔬 Join us at noon on Wednesday, March 11, for the next VMI/HVI Research Conference! Dr. Babak Razani will present: "Release the Grease: Modern Insights into Lipolysis and Metabolic Dysfunction"

This is what amino acids look like if you let the side chains flop around on the page

@malihe_rez62483 @AliiAjam It was wonderful meeting you as well Malihe and seeing great talents like you, Ali, and Reza developing as the next generation of cardiologist-scientists 💪

@chansteve73 @yushengyeh @AKirillova0424 @PittVMI @PittDeptofMed @HviUpmc @PittCMU_MSTP Thanks for highlighting this. Likewise, congratulations Chan Lab members Anna and Yinan on these excellent awards and Steve on the Lectureship 🎉

Historic night for VMI/HVI & Pitt at #AHA25. 3 trainees (@yushengyeh in @RazaniLab and @AKirillova0424 and Yinan Shi in Chan lab) competed for early career awards across BCVS, GPM, & 3CPR councils. Anna and Yinan both won. @PittVMI @PittDeptofMed @HviUpmc @PittCMU_MSTP are proud!

Proud of Terrific Trio @RazaniLab Postdocs make strong showing at #AHA25 NOLA this week: @yushengyeh competes as finalist in #BCVS Katz Basic Science Research Prize. @Ziyang_LiuPhD presents #Galectin3 & @AliiAjam #cholesterol #mtor work at VB.MDP.15/16 & ATVB Council Reception 🔥

Nice showing by @RazaniLab members at the 16th Annual #Aging Institute Research Day for @AgingPitt @PittDeptofMed. @AliiAjam & @MdSaifurRKhan1 won Best Posters for Clinical/Translational Postdoc and Basic Science Faculty category 🔥💪 Will you guys be able to eat all that? 🤔

@ArdehaliHossein @PittVMI @chansteve73 @PittCardiology Thanks @ArdehaliHossein for visiting us and teaching us all things #iron and #CVD. Thanks @ParthaDuttaLab and Pittsburgh Metabolism Consortium for organizing it and bringing renowned scientists to @PittTweet @PittDeptofMed.

It was great visiting Univ of Pittsburgh and spending time with my good friend, @RazaniLab. Thanks for hosting me. @PittVMI @chansteve73 @PittCardiology

@LodhiLab @Nature @Jessielxj2 @WashUDeptMed Congratulations @Jessielxj2 and @LodhiLab for this wonderful work. Just an amazing effort and discovery 🔥 Thanks for the many years of collaboration.

Happy to share our new paper in @Nature led by staff scientist Xuejing Liu @Jessielxj2. We report identification of a UCP1-independent pathway of brown fat thermogenesis involving ATP-consuming metabolism of BCFA in peroxisomes. #Obesity #T2D nature.com/articles/s4158… @WashUDeptMed

Super discovery by @LodhiLab in @Nature today. BCFA, which are #fattyacids derived from #BCAA like #leucine, are metabolized in #peroxisomes as new form of #brownfat #thermogenesis (heat production). Thanks for including us in this multi-year effort 💪 nature.com/articles/s4158…

Nice way to close summer 2025 for @RazaniLab and also celebrate our summer students from @PittVMI VUE Program and @PittDeptofMed @pitt_medicine Dean's Summer Research Program 🎉

Congrats Dr. Bahram Razani (@BahramRazani) on the official lab launch @UCSF @UCSFMedicine. Looking forward to seeing Great things from the "other" Razani Lab! 😁

LIPA locus #SNP (#Lysosome Acid Lipase gene) long known as #CVD risk. Cool work by @FangLi47313348 of @hanrui_zhang lab in @ESC_Journals uses high-tech functional #genomics to uncover mechanism backed by mouse model. Thanks for including us in the journey. academic.oup.com/eurheartj/adva…

@hanrui_zhang Congratulations @hanrui_zhang and lab. Really fantastic work on LIPA and reflective of the great body of work you have been contributing in this area over the past decade! 👏🏼🎉 I'll post something highlighting it soon as well.

New in European Heart Journal #EHJ: A full genomic-to-mechanism story for the CAD-associated LIPA locus! 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/eurhea…

Blocking #CD47 has emerged as promising therapy in #CVD. Check out work in @CircAHA by Zhen Guo of @Alicardsdoc lab identifying CD47 in #cardiomyopathy #heartfailure induced by doxorubicin & targeting it as novel therapy. Great partnering with you on this. ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CI…

Hunting for the next key metabolite besides #TMAO driving #atherosclerosis #CVD? Need to read excellent work by @SanchoLab in @Nature implicating gut #microbiota derived "ImP" with possible links to our favorite #macrophage #mtor signaling in the plaque. nature.com/articles/s4158…

Check out our new commentary on #leucine and role in #CVD #atherosclerosis via #mtor #autophagy. Spearheaded by @XiangyuZ0321, @AliiAjam & @RazaniLab team we discuss next steps in limiting leucine's damage to the #macrophage & the atherosclerotic plaque. tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15…

Our work suggests that if trehalose has disease-fighting effects by ingestion, they are likely secondary to other physiological effects and not directly.

#trehalose is still a fascinating dissacharide that works brilliantly by parenteral (i.e. not oral) route to treat many diseases spanning #atherosclerosis, metabolic, & neurodegenerative diseases. It just cannot be ingested and assumed to be effective as suggested in many papers.

News flash #trehalose aficionados: New work by @yushengyeh and @RazaniLab team shows this natural sugar inducing #autophagy #TFEB to treat #obesity #metabolism & other diseases is NOT effective by oral route and KO of gut enzyme #trehalase doesn't help. frontiersin.org/journals/nutri…