Astrid Rodriguez Velez

Program: Molecular Cell Biology

Current advisor: Joel Schilling, MD, PhD

Undergraduate university: University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, 2018

Enrollment year: 2018

Research summary
Investigating the role of macrophage galectins and endomembrane damage in atherosclerosis

Graduate publications
Zhang X, Evans TD, Chen S, Sergin I, Stitham J, Jeong SJ, Rodriguez-Velez A, Yeh YS, Park A, Jung IH, Diwan A, Schilling JD, Rom O, Yurdagul A, Epelman S, Cho J, Lodhi IJ, Mittendorfer B, Razani B.. 2023 Loss of Macrophage mTORC2 Drives Atherosclerosis via FoxO1 and IL-1β Signaling. Clin Res, 133(3):200-19. PMCID:

Jeong SJ, Stitham J, Evans TD, Zhang X, Rodriguez-Velez A, Yeh YS, Tao J, Takabatake K, Epelman S, J Lodhi I, D Schilling J, J Debosch B, Diwan A, Razani B. 2021 Trehalose causes low-grade lysosomal stress to activate TFEB and the autophagy-lysosome biogenesis response. Autophagy, 17(11):3740-52. PMCID: PMC8632292

Stitham J, Rodriguez-Velez A, Zhang X, Jeong SJ, Razani B. 2020 Inflammasomes: Preclinical targeting of atherosclerosis. Expert Opin Ther Targets, 24(9):825-44

Zhang X, Sergin I, Evans TD, Jeong SJ, Rodriguez-Velez A, Kapoor D, Chen S, Song E, Holloway KB, Crowley JR, Epelman S, Weihl CC, Diwan A, Fan D, Mittendorfer B, Stitziel NO, Schilling JD, Lodhi IJ, Razani B. 2020 High-protein Diets Increase Cardiovascular Risk by Activating Macrophage mTOR to Suppress Mitophagy. Nat Metab, 2(1):110-25. PMCID: PMC7053091

Jeong SJ, Zhang X, Rodriguez-Velez A, Evans TD, Razani B. 2019 p62/SQSTM1 and Selective Autophagy in Cardiometabolic Diseases. Antioxid Redox Signal, 31(6):458-71. PMCID: PMC6653798