During my thesis at the Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Innsbruck, in the group of Josef Patsch, I started my research on regulation of transfer of neutral lipids in humans and afterwards focused on systemic and cellular pathophysiological aspects of fatty liver disease in states of insulin resistance and obesity. Mechanistically, we found that reduced cellular effects of adiponectin contribute to development of steatohepatitis in patients with underlying steatosis. In a later study we identified apolipoprotein A5 as critical determinant of hepatic triglyceride accumulation. Beginning with 2015 our Christian Doppler Laboratory for Metabolic Crosstalk which is headed by myself focused on investigating effects of various diets on cellular glucose and fatty acid metabolism especially in the liver and the skeletal muscle. Additionally, we aim to better characterize determinants of adipose tissue differentiation and transition of brown into white adipocytes or vice versa in various mouse models of diet-induced obesity or in vitro cell culture models.

Cellular mechanisms of insulin resistance in adipose tissue and the liver Endocrine and metabolic mechanisms of fatty liver disease