Immunometabolism, Inflammation and Chemistry Intersecting with Greg Timblin

Greg is currently a postdoctoral fellow at UCSF studying macrophage immunometabolism in cancer and infection. What makes him truly unique is his ability to do groundbreaking research while training to qualify for the Olympic Trials marathon. Although Greg didn’t make it to the Trials due to injury, he did get a Nature Metabolism publication for his work connecting mitohormesis to immunity, with implications in cancer, longevity, and beyond. Greg grew up in a small Nebraska town where his mother, a kindergarten teacher, cultivated an interest in science. Summer biochemistry research at the University of Colorado spurred Greg to go to UC Berkeley for graduate school at the interface of chemistry and biology.

While earning his PhD in the Mark Schlissel & Robert Tjian Labs, Greg would dominate Friday morning MCB basketball games at RSF. He's an even better runner, and was also his high school's starting quarterback. His graduate research focused on the transcriptional regulation of  B cell development. After his PhD, Greg delayed his postdoctoral studies to become lab manager in Kaoru Saijo’s lab when she joined the UC Berkeley faculty to have more time to focus on running. In our conversation, we discuss a mysterious observation that led him down a new thread of immunology. After helping set up the lab, Greg decided to transition from lab manager to postdoc, as a screen of endogenous estrogen metabolites had unveiled an entirely new area of macrophage biology. Greg's work, published in Nature Metabolism, established hydroxyestrogens as anti-inflammatory estrogens that work via inducing mitohormesis and rewiring macrophage metabolism. For background, hormesis essentially means a little bit of stress is positive while too much is negative. Mitohormesis is just this phenomenon in mitochondria, and is best-known as a lifespan-promoting stress response in yeast and worms. It's an incredible story of discovery and connecting mitohormesis to the restraint of inflammation, especially in the backdrop of training for the Olympic Trials.

Greg is extending this work at UCSF by exploring an immunometabolic strategy to help macrophages fight cancer and pathogens. Along with this, he has co-founded a startup to translate his mitohormesis work and design novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics. The best is yet to come as Greg defines new areas of immunology and pursues their applications.