Professional Bio
Lin Zhu, MD, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her research is focused on understanding the relationship between energy homeostasis and inflammation, which might be a foundational mechanism for insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, and atherosclerosis. Dr. Zhu's research focuses on the use of mouse disease models to identify mechanisms that underlie insulin resistance and atherosclerosis. She aims to define fundamental principles of how to improve HDL function for patients with type-2 diabetes to reduce cardiovascular disease.
During her graduate studies, Dr. Zhu studied the regulation of PCYT2, a rate-limiting enzyme for phospholipid synthesis, at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. This work resulted in seven publications with four of them as the first author. During her training as a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Vanderbilt, Dr. Zhu demonstrated that LRP1-deficient macrophages caused inflammatory responses in the artery walls due to the impaired ability of foam cells to clear the plaque. In another high-impact project, she found that anti-inflammatory macrophages promoted cholesterol reverse transport and macrophage migration out of artery walls, leading to atherosclerosis regression. This novel discovery may set up a platform to develop therapeutic policies to prevent cardiovascular events.
During her training in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism at Vanderbilt, Dr. Zhu showed that deletion of liver estrogen receptor alpha led to lipid accumulation in the liver and caused whole body insulin resistance. She also showed that a clinically used CETP inhibitor increased HDL cholesterol; however, it also increased inflammatory responses and causes insulin resistance in obese mice. This study may explain the reason why clinical trials using CETP inhibitors have failed to prevent cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Zhu's ongoing projects include studying the role of small heterodimer partner in NAFLD/NASH, further investigating the targets that improve ASCVD risks such as insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and dyslipidemia.
Publications
Education
MD - Tianjin Medical University, 1994
MS - Human Health and Nutritional Sciences - University of Guelph, 2004
PhD - Human Health and Nutritional Sciences - University of Guelph, 2008
Fellowship - Human Health and Nutritional Sciences - University of Guelph, 2010
Fellowship - Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism - Vanderbilt University, 2012
Fellowship - Cardiology - Vanderbilt University, 2014
Fellowship - Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism - Vanderbilt University, 2017
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307