Obesity is associated with changes in the immune system that impact endocrine control of metabolism. This metabolic inflammation can impair insulin action (i.e., insulin resistance) in tissues that participate in blood glucose control. What are the triggers of compartmentalized inflammation during obesity or metabolic disease? How does stress alter blood glucose, insulin, and insulin resistance? The Schertzer laboratory is interested in understanding these problems in immunometabolism and how dietary and bacterial factors connect immunology and metabolism. The lab studies the gut microbiota in metabolic disease, where we aim to discover new connections in the 2-way street between host blood glucose and commensal or pathogenic gut bacteria.

The lab aims to understand how the food and drugs we ingest and the bacteria that colonize us can cause (or prevent) metabolic diseases. Our team is interested in finding "postbiotics" that alter blood glucose. We aim to understand how bacterial components or metabolic disease drugs alter metabolism via innate immunity involving nucleotide oligomerization domain (Nod) and inflammasomes. This research also studies how environmental stress alters lipid and glucose metabolism during obesity and changes in diet.

The Schertzer laboratory has a long-standing interest in the role of inflammation in muscle diseases. We are particularly interested in immunity and statin-induced myopathy.