Dr. Hepler earned her PhD in Integrative Biology in the laboratory of Rana Gupta at UT Southwestern, followed by her postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Joe Bass at Northwestern University. In 2024, Dr. Hepler joined the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in the Molecular & Integrative Physiology department and the Caswell Diabetes Institute. Her goal is to uncover the mechanisms through which the circadian clock regulates metabolism and physiology, and how circadian disruption leads to metabolic disease.

Disruption of circadian rhythms through shiftwork, sleep loss, and mistimed eating leads to an increased risk of diabetes and obesity. Conversely, aligning mealtime with circadian rhythms improves glycemic control and reduces adiposity, in part through mechanisms involving adipose tissue remodeling. Adipose tissue demonstrates remarkable plasticity, adapting its size, cellular composition, and metabolism in response to various external cues, including overnutrition and time-restricted eating. My lab is dedicated to understanding the physiologic regulation of energy balance and the pathologic expansion of adipose tissue during obesity. Our goal is to uncover how the circadian clock regulates adipose tissue metabolism and physiology in response to shifting environmental signals, and to understand how circadian disruption leads to metabolic diseases.