Dr. Gregory Graf holds a PhD in Physiology from the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky.  Following postdoctoral training in Molecular Genetics in the laboratory of Dr. Helen Hobbs at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, he returned to the University of Kentucky and joined the faculty in the Division of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.   Dr. Graf returned to the Department of Physiology in 2022 and serves as the Associate Director of the Saha Cardiovascular Research Center.  

The goal of Dr. Graf’s research program is to identify novel proteins and pathways that directly influence risk factors for metabolic diseases that include dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and inflammation. Cholesterol has long been known to increase risk for cardiovascular disease. It is now clear that disturbances in cholesterol metabolism also contribute to obesity-related phenotypes such as insulin resistance, inflammation, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.  Our present focus is to understand the mechanism by which disruptions in sterol homeostasis influence these risk factors and to determine if accelerating cholesterol elimination will improve obesity-related metabolic dysfunction.