Khambu, Bilon

Bilon Khambu’s research has focused on understanding autophagy, its molecular mechanism, and its pathophysiological function in metabolic liver diseases such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. Khambu's recent work has focused on disease degeneration and regeneration in chronic liver disease, examining the mechanism of liver injury, inflammation, ductular reaction, fibrosis and tumorigenesis, particularly the role of hepatic factors such as HMGB1 in the development of various liver pathologies. Using multiple genetic and biochemical approaches, his study showed for the first time that the active release of HMGB1 from autophagy-deficient hepatocytes causes ductular reaction and liver tumorigenesis without affecting liver inflammation and fibrosis. His most recent work examines the cellular source of new regenerating hepatocytes in the chronically injured liver. Diverse approaches including transgenic mouse models, in vitro primary liver cells and hepatic cell lines, quantitative and analytical biochemistry, proteomics and mass spectrometry as well as bioinformatics methods are employed in these studies. His initiatives are complemented by collaborating with other groups on and off campus.