Directory Entry For: Leila Gobejishvili

Biography

Leila Gobejishvili is Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology and Medicine at University of Louisville. She has more than 20 years of experience in studying the molecular mechanisms of alcohol mediated changes in inflammatory responses, hepatocyte injury and fibrogenesis. Her research focuses on the role of a second messenger, cyclic AMP in regulating liver cell responses to alcohol. Her work has shown that cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase 4 is critically involved in alcohol mediated dysregulation of inflammatory responses in macrophages and lipid metabolism in hepatocytes. Her current funding investigates the mechanisms involved in the protection of alcohol induced liver injury by PDE4 inhibition. Dr. Gobejishvili’s laboratory has been funded by the National Institutes of Health. She has co-authored more than forty peer-reviewed manuscript and presented her work nationally and internationally. 

Research Interests

Dr. Gobejishvili’s research focus is chronic liver disease, gut-liver and gut-liver-brain access. More specifically, Leila’s laboratory investigates the roles of cyclic nucleotide signaling and phosphodiesterases in the pathogenic pathways contributing to various stages of liver disease starting from a simple steatosis (fat accumulation) to steatohepatitis and fibrosis. Her laboratory uses both in vitro cell culture and in vivo animal models to study the mechanisms of liver disease. Laboratory uses various methods to study the signal transduction in cells and various organs in response to injurious stimuli. These methods include biochemical assays, ELISA, bulk RNA sequencing, real time qPCR, Western blot, protein-protein interaction by immunoprecipitation and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to name a few. 

Key Research Areas 

·         Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD)

·         Role of cAMP signaling in alcohol mediated dysregulation of lipid metabolism

·         Mechanisms of compromised cAMP signaling by phosphodiesterases during liver disease

·         Mechanisms of hepatic stellate cell activation and liver fibrosis

·         Role of phosphodiesterases in maintaining gut barrier function

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