AIMRC Seminar: Macrophage Dysfunction in Atherosclerosis: A Role for Toll-Like Receptor 8 (TLR8)Photo Submitted Ryan Allen, an assistant professor of physiology and cell biology at the UAMS. In his talk, he will share a current project from his lab dedicated to developing a drug-responsive mouse model of atherosclerosis, a disease where fatty deposits clog the arteries, and how toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) contributes to macrophage dysfunction in atherosclerosis. His expertise spans lipid and lipoprotein homeostasis, macrophage biology, non-coding small RNAs and bioinformatics. Current independent projects in Allen's laboratory are dedicated to developing a drug-responsive mouse model of atherosclerosis, understanding how toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) contributes to macrophage dysfunction in atherosclerosis and how hyperlipidemia influences the host response to infection. As a junior faculty member at Vanderbilt, he published first-author papers in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles and Nature Cell Biology.