About

Wegiel lab

The projects listed below outline the ongoing research efforts in our laboratory:

  1. Role of heme and extracellular DNA as DAMPs in inflammatory conditions and autoimmune diseases.
  2. Targeting extracellular matrix regulators as an anti-fibrotic strategy in liver disease.
  3. Role of macrophage-expressed heme degradation enzymes in the pathogenesis of liver disease.
  4. Role of biliverdin reductase and bile pigments in sterile inflammation-induced organ injury, liver fibrosis, and cancer.
  5. Role of heme pathways in the development and progression of prostate cancer.
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Research Area

We demonstrated that hemopexin, a heme scavenger, acts as a tumor suppressor protein and labile heme promotes prostate cancer metastases via a direct interaction with G-quadruplex (G4) DNA (Cell Reports, 2020). Our ongoing research focuses on the characterization of multiple heme:G4 regulated genes that have been identified in this initial publication.

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