Dr. Karki’s Research

Obesity represents the largest preventable health care problem in the United States. More than two third of deaths related to obesity worldwide are from cardiovascular cause. Pathological mechanisms that connect obesity to cardiovascular disease are incompletely understood. Endothelial and vascular dysfunctions, insulin resistance, and inflammation have been implicated in the process. My research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms of obesity induced endothelial and vascular dysfunction, insulin-resistance and their links to cardiovascular disease using multiple translational and clinical approaches. We study human fat tissue, and individual cells within the tissue at baseline and during the follow-up visits and evaluate the effect of Bariatric surgery on human obesity. Additionally, we study systemic changes that happen after the Bariatric surgery, evaluating the novel plasma biomarkers at both time points and understand the mechanism of these changes.