Rate My Professor Norbert Leitinger

Norbert Leitinger, PhD, serves as Professor of Pharmacology in the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Vienna. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of the Leitinger Lab and Associate Director of the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, a position to which he was appointed in 2015. His primary research interests focus on the role of lipid oxidation products, particularly oxidized phospholipids, in inflammation and vascular immunology associated with atherosclerosis and diabetes. The Leitinger Lab investigates the regulation of immune cell-mediated inflammatory and metabolic responses in infectious and chronic progressive diseases, including mechanisms by which oxidized lipids influence macrophage phenotypic polarization, bioenergetics, heme detoxification, and acute inflammatory responses.

Leitinger's contributions have profoundly influenced cardiovascular pharmacology and immunology. He received a $2.5 million grant in 2023 to examine the role of Acetyl CoA Carboxylase isoforms in the metabolic control of inflammation, employing genetic approaches, bioenergetics analysis, metabolomics, and lipidomics in macrophage studies and murine infection models. Key publications include 'Nucleotides released by apoptotic cells act as a find-me signal to promote phagocytic clearance' (Nature, 2009), 'Macrophage acetyl-CoA carboxylase regulates acute inflammatory responses after bacterial infection' (Science Advances, 2022), 'Identification of a novel macrophage phenotype that develops in response to atherogenic phospholipids via Nrf2' (Circulation Research, 2010), 'Structural identification by mass spectrometry of oxidized phospholipids in minimally oxidized low density lipoprotein that induce monocyte/endothelial interactions' (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1997), 'Protective role of phospholipid oxidation products in endotoxin-induced tissue damage' (Nature, 2002), and 'Oxidized phospholipids as modulators of inflammation in atherosclerosis' (Current Opinion in Lipidology, 2003). With more than 15,000 citations across 226 research works, his findings on oxidized phospholipids' dual pro- and anti-inflammatory effects have shaped understandings of metabolic adaptations in disease.