Stephen R. Farmer

My research during the last several years has focused on defining the transcriptional events regulating white, beige and brown adipocyte formation and function. My contributions have included a detailed dissection of mechanisms regulating the early phases of adipogenesis, the induction of brown like adipocytes (brite/beige cells) in white adipose depots and identification of novel targets for development of anti-obesity therapeutics. A major focus has been devoted to understanding mechanisms regulating the fate of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) including the role of specific transcriptional programs most notably, PPARg and MRTFA. In the case of the latter, we showed it is a negative regulator of recruitment of MSC progenitors to the adipocyte lineage, but a positive regulator of obesity-induced adipose fibrosis. In recent studies, we have characterized the cellular complexity of the stromal vascular compartment as well as adipocytes of subcutaneous and visceral adipose depots through analysis of single cell RNA (scRNAseq) and single nuclei RNA (snRNAseq) data sets. Very recently, I have become interested in understanding how mural cells of the adipose microvasculature transform into adipocyte progenitors that are recruited during formation of beige adipocytes in response to adrenergic signaling.