Current research interests of Dr. Faisal cover 3 main areas: 1) Regulation of gene transcription profiling by lipids and/or phytochemiclas, emphasizing the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) and other nuclear hormone receptors 2) Functional roles of natural bioactive compounds in lipid and glucose metabolism genes-encoding enzymes with a main focus on their metabolic signaling pathways; 3) The abdominal & bone marrow adiposity study- using a dietary intervention to prevent the metabolic health abnormalities and normalize adipogenesis pathway in subjects with high levels of visceral abdominal fat (belly fat) and fatty bone marrow that may lead to development of chronic diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD), type II diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer and heart diseases. In the last project, measuring classic markers of metabolic health, state of the art omics techniques (metabolomics, transcriptomics) will be applied in the nearby future as sensitive readouts for the effects of our dietary interventions on metabolic health.

Metabolism & Genomics, Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms, Molecular &Clinical Nutrition, signal transduction pathways, Stem cells biology.