Rate My Professor Mikhail Kolonin

Kolonin's laboratory investigates the multifaceted roles of stromal cells from adipose tissue in healthy metabolism and diseases including obesity, type-2 diabetes, muscle degeneration, cancer, and aging. His group examines adipocyte heterogeneity, fatty acid transport in diabetes and cancer, ASC recruitment in chronic diseases contributing to chemoresistance, metastasis, and fibrosis, and replicative senescence in stem cells linked to neurological and muscular dysfunction. They developed telomerase-deficient mouse models demonstrating senescence-induced vascular leakiness, tissue hypoxia, cognitive impairment, reduced muscle endurance, and metabolic abnormalities independent of telomere attrition, revealing dysfunctional mitochondria and glycolytic dependence. Recent studies elucidate GLP1 receptor agonist mechanisms, including transient IL-6 signaling on perivascular cells and adipocytes for adipose thermogenesis and anti-diabetic effects. Kolonin has invented experimental therapeutics such as ASC-targeted ablation reversing obesity in mice and peptides for metastatic cancer detection, imaging, and therapy. Notable publications include "A framework for advancing our understanding of cancer-associated fibroblasts" (Nature Reviews Cancer, 2020), "Reversal of obesity by targeted ablation of adipose tissue" (Nature Medicine, 2004), "A population of multipotent CD34-positive adipose stromal cells share pericyte and mesenchymal surface markers..." (Circulation Research, 2008), "Steps toward mapping the human vasculature by phage display" (Nature Medicine, 2002), and "Cancer as a matter of fat: the crosstalk between adipose tissue and tumors" (Trends in Cancer, 2018). His research has advanced therapeutic strategies targeting senescent cells and ASC-derived cancer-associated fibroblasts in combination with immunotherapy.