Ke Ma, M.D., Ph.D.

The circadian clock entrains metabolic pathways to environmental and endogenous timing cues. Our modern lifestyle creates frequent conflicts between daily activity cycles and the endogenous clock timing, which poses significant risk to the development of metabolic disorders and cancer. Despite the increasing recognition that clock dysfunction may underlie these prevalent chronic diseases, how tissue-intrinsic clock systems orchestrate metabolic homeostasis in accordance with oscillating nutrient signals is not understood.

The broad goal of Dr. Ma’s research is to decipher the molecular pathways by which cell-autonomous clock circuits drive metabolic tissue growth and functional capacity, in order to uncover circadian etiologies underlying metabolic disorders for targeted therapeutic interventions. By combining biochemical and molecular biology approaches with whole-body animal physiology, Dr. Ma’s laboratory applies state-of-the-art technologies in circadian biology to metabolic disease research. In the past seven years, Dr. Ma has successfully established a unique research program in dissecting temporal mechanisms involved in tissue growth and functions of distinct adipose depots and skeletal muscle.

Currently, Dr. Ma’s lab is investigating the genetic and epigenetic regulatory networks mediating nutrient-sensing functions of clock in tissue crosstalk between fat, muscle and liver under normal physiology, and more importantly, how there mechanisms apply to obesity and diabetes. Furthermore, her group explores how clock systems drive stem cell behaviors to fine-tune tissue development, growth and remodeling, and how these processes impact their metabolic capacity. In addition, Dr. Ma will establish collaborative effort with investigators from translational medicine and the Comprehensive Cancer Center at City of Hope to study how environmental lighting and shiftwork-induced circadian clock disruption leads to metabolic dysregulations and its causal relationship with the development of various types of cancer. Ultimately, Dr. Ma’s research to decipher the intricate temporal mechanisms will lead to the discovery of novel targeted clock interventions for the prevention or treatment of metabolic diseases and cancer.