{"id":1730625,"date":"2025-06-17T11:14:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T15:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hf4f\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:33:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:33:55","slug":"hf4f","status":"publish","type":"faculty-listing","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hf4f\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferris, Heather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Obesity, hyperlipidemia, and type 2 diabetes are all metabolic disorders associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease. Our lab is interested in understanding how changes in metabolism, either in the brain or in the periphery affecting the brain, influence the risk for dementia.<\/p>\n<p>1. Brain cholesterol- Cholesterol is an important structural molecule, but it also serves as a regulatory molecule in the brain. It is transported between cells by ApoE particles. Mutations in ApoE are one of the main risk factors for Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease. We have demonstrated that cholesterol can regulate cellular behavior by changing the ability of cell surface enzymes to interact with their ligands. For example, increased cholesterol can increase amyloid plaque formation and inflammation. In our current studies, we seek to understand how various cholesterol species can differentially affect neuro-inflammation and the possibility of pharmacologically targeting ApoE cholesterol loading and secretion to reduce the adverse effects of excess cholesterol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1735689,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"otheraff":[2461,2410,2411,2413],"phd-degree":[2566,2569,2565],"primary":[2350],"research-discipline":[2491,2499,2515,2500,2501,2502],"research-opportunity":[2550,2544,2551,2562,2553],"training-grant":[2311,2315],"class_list":["post-1730625","faculty-listing","type-faculty-listing","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","otheraff-brain-immunology-and-glia-center","otheraff-neuroscience","otheraff-neuroscience-graduate-program","otheraff-pathology-experimental","phd-degree-phd-experimentalpathology","phd-degree-phd-neuroscience","phd-degree-phd-pharmacology","primary-medicine-endocrinology-and-metabolism","research-discipline-experimental-pathology","research-discipline-metabolism","research-discipline-molecular-and-cellular-physiology","research-discipline-molecular-pharmacology","research-discipline-neuroimmunology","research-discipline-neuroscience","research-opportunity-ro-cellularandmolecularmetabolism","research-opportunity-ro-experimentalpathology","research-opportunity-ro-molecularpharmacology","research-opportunity-ro-neuroimmunology","research-opportunity-ro-neuroscience","training-grant-predoctoral-training-in-neuroscience","training-grant-training-in-the-pharmacological-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ferris, Heather - Research Faculty Directory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/faculty\/faculty-listing\/hf4f\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ferris, Heather - Research Faculty Directory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Obesity, hyperlipidemia, and type 2 diabetes are all metabolic disorders associated with cognitive decline and Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease. 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