Research Overview
Our lab has specialized knowledge and expertise in the areas of alcohol and obesity-related fatty liver disease, energy metabolism, fat and glycogen metabolism, bioenergetics, and redox signaling. Recently, our work has focused intensively on determining how alcohol and obesogenic diets alter circadian rhythms of metabolism in the liver and other organs, as well as how circadian disruption contributes to dysfunction and disease. We were the first group to show that chronic alcohol feeding disrupts the molecular circadian clock mechanism in the liver and induces circadian desynchrony between the central clock in the brain and the peripheral liver clock. We use genetic mouse models to interrogate the role of the molecular circadian clock in modulating liver metabolism and organ damage from both alcohol and obesogenic diets.
Our research is highly interdisciplinary as we work with neuroscientists and renal and vascular physiologists to determine the importance of whole body multi-organ circadian disruption in cardiovascular disease risk. We are investigating the intersections of multiple clock-regulated metabolic pathways (lipid/fat and glucose metabolism, mitochondrial bioenergetic function, hepatokine and adipokine signaling) in the regulation of vascular function during both normal physiological and pathophysiological (obesity) conditions. We are also working on determining the mechanistic underpinnings of the cardiovascular and hepatic benefits of time-restricted feeding in experimental models of diet-induced obesity.
Bailey Lab Research in the News
NPR interview and podcast: Take Care Hosted by Lorraine Rapp and Linda Lowen
Aired November 4, 2017
Alcohol and its effect on your liver
NPR interview and podcast: Take Care Hosted by Lorraine Rapp and Linda Lowen
Aired January 21, 2017
Liver Health Impacted by Circadian Clock
New York Times Article: By Steph Yin, December 22, 2016
Your Liver Doesn’t Know it’s the Holidays
The American Physiological Society – Press Release, September 10, 2015
Chronic Drinking Disrupts Liver’s Circadian Clock, Contributes to Alcoholic Liver Disease
The Mix at UAB: September 12, 2014
Grad Student Receives National Award for New Insight on Alcohol and Liver Damage
