Natalie Torok, MD, MSc, AGAF, FAASLD

Biography

Natalie J. Torok is a physician-scientist at Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto. The Torok lab's primary research interests are in the pathomechanisms of liver fibrosis and matrix remodeling and exploring translational aspects to prevent liver disease progression. Clinically, metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis (MASH) is becoming the leading cause of chronic liver disease and liver cancer, and her lab is interested in deciphering how dynamic changes in the liver matrix accelerate this process in certain conditions such as type 2 diabetes. Of particular interest are studies on collagen architecture and connectivity and how these are implicated in mechano-sensing. They also explore aging-related pathways in wound healing processes, and how these intersect with innate immune responses and matrix modulation in the liver, particularly pathways that lead to hepatocellular carcinoma invasion. Based on these studies they are identifying targets to treat fibrosis, and are performing investigator-initiated clinical trials. As fatty liver is becoming the most common liver disease in the US and worldwide the ultimate goal is to target high-risk populations, and to develop novel surveillance and therapeutic approaches.