View Our Latest Developments
May 2026
Two new papers accepted in Nature and Obesity
The Majithia Lab contributed to two newly accepted studies spanning basic cholesterol biology and translational metabolic intervention. A collaborative study with the Saltiel lab was accepted in Nature, identifying a Ral-dependent hepatic pathway controlling LDLR turnover and cholesterol homeostasis in response to high dietary cholesterol. A second study, the TREAD randomized control trial, was accepted in Obesity and reports that time-restricted eating promotes weight loss and favorable adipose tissue changes in obesity.
April 2026
Dr. Majithia appointed Vice Chair of Research
Dr. Amit Majithia was appointed Vice Chair of Research for the UC San Diego Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. In this role, he will help support the division’s research strategy, faculty development, and translational research programs.
February 2026
The Majithia Lab has been awarded a renewal of NIH/NIDDK grant 5 R01 DK124422-03, “Combining experiments of man and nature to target human insulin resistance.“
This project aims to identify novel therapeutic targets for insulin resistance by integrating high-throughput functional experiments, human genetics, and investigational studies of drug treatments with thiazolidinediones. Building on our previous work leveraging human proteogenomics, engineered adipocyte depot models, and in vivo adipose-specific proteomics to discover and validate novel adipokines, this renewal expands our approach to bridge large-scale genomic discovery with translational human studies.
December 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Emily Kobayashi on her successful thesis defense! Dr. Kobayashi was a graduate student in the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology graduate program with a background in computer science. While in the Majithia Lab, she led multiple projects to integrate and analyze longitudinal patient clinical data, proteomics, and metabolomics. Dr. Kobayashi also collaborated broadly, resulting in significant contributions to multiple published studies on continuous glucose monitoring.
December 2025
We have been invited to been invited to the upcoming 62nd Annual Meeting of the European Assocation for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) to present our recent work on longitudinal metabolic trajectories in diabetes prevention program participants. Catch us there in September 2026, Milan, Italy!
November 2025
We are hiring postdocs and staff researchers! If you are interested in applying (i) computational genetics, (ii) in vitro or (iii) in vivo functional genomics to study metabolic diseases, look at our Open Positions.
November 2025
Check out the latest publication evaluating late second- and third-trimester continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and associations with outcomes in pregnant people with type 1 diabetes.
October 2025
Welcome to our two newest undergraduate researchers! Alisa Zhang is majoring in Bioinformatics & Cognitive Science with Specialization in Machine Learning and a minor in Computer Science. She will be working with staff scientist Michelle to identify causal relationships between genes of interest and metabolic diseases. David is a majoring in Human Biology. He will be working with staff scientist Alex to develop a cohort of TNFAIP8 knockout mice for studies to probe the role of TNFAIP8 in insulin resistance.
September 2025
Read this hot-off-the-press preprint on the largest ever exome-wide association study for type 2 diabetes in South Asians, implicating HNF4A, GP2, and RNF19A in the etiology of diabetes and metabolic traits in South Asians. We collaborated with the Siddiqui lab to contribute to functional characterization of a novel HNF4A variant, with more studies to come!
August 2025
Check out our recent publication defining distinct patient subgroups that progress differentially from prediabetes to diabetes and associated complications: “Longitudinal Metabolic Trajectories in Diabetes Prevention Program Participants Reveal Subgroups With Varying Micro- and Macrovascular Complication Risks.” Diabetes Care. PDF.
July 2025
Thank you to the UCSD School of Medicine and the Prebys Foundation for their generous support of our lab’s continued research through the Prebys Pivot grant. Read more about our project and the other awardees here!
June 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Arjana Begzati on her successful thesis defense! Dr. Begzati brought metabolomics to the Majithia lab, identifying new metabolite biomarkers in patients with diabetes and devising new methods of metabolite identification.
May 2025
Check out our recent publication on the inpatient use of continuous glucose monitors, the culmination of a collaboration with fellow UCSD endocrinologists: “Accuracy of factory-calibrated continuous glucose monitors in critically ill patients receiving intravenous insulin: a prospective clinical trial of two leading systems.” Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology. PDF.
May 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Xiaomi Du, the newest PhD graduate from our lab! Dr. Du contributed to many successful projects during her graduate career including the role of PPARG in insulin response as well as pioneered new CRISPR technologies in the lab.
April 2025
Our recent work identifying the AF-1 domain of PPARG as an insulin-sensitizing therapeutic target was highlighted as Diabetes Paper of the Month and the topic of a recent DiabetesBio episode – an official podcast from the American Diabetes Association. Give it a listen to hear more from Dr. Majithia!
February 2025
Welcome to our newest postdoc, Kavita Koshta! Dr. Koshta brings expertise in adipocyte biology, metabolic mouse models, and exposure to environmental toxicants.