Professor Rye’s research is concerned with preventing heart disease and diabetes. She was the first to report that, in addition to reducing cardiovascular risk, the atheroprotective high density lipoprotein (HDL) fraction of plasma has anti-inflammatory properties and improves glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes. Professor Rye studies signal transduction pathways in multiple cell types (macrophages and endothelial cells for heart disease and pancreatic beta cells and skeletal muscle cells for diabetes) and works with novel animal models and state-of-the-art imaging techniques to identify new therapeutic targets for heart disease and diabetes.