Professor Dr. Mary Sorci Thomas

Biography

Mary Sorci-Thomas advances cardiovascular disease prevention therapeutics, focusing on the growing concerns of metabolic disorders, diabetes, insulin resistance, and the obesity epidemic that is driving total mortality rates over the past decade. Her research aims to understand and maintain the appropriate balance of cholesterol within adipose tissue and to promote functional adipose tissue expansion. Dr. Sorci-Thomas has found that the extracellular matrix protein, procollagen C-endopeptidase enhancer protein 2 (PCPE2), modulates adipocyte SR-BI mediated HDL uptake. Her continuing studies aim to identify how cholesterol homeostasis contributes to a fibro-inflammatory phenotype characterized by unhealthy adipose expansion. The findings from her research are geared towards identifying novel strategies for treating metabolically driven cardiovascular disease and its related complications.

Research Interests