Macrophages take inputs from inflammatory and metabolic sources to respond to various disease states through the release of inflammatory cytokines. The inflammasome is a multiprotein complex that regulates these inflammatory responses. It facilitates cytokine release through the induction of pyroptosis, a mode of inflammatory cell death. Recent work has begun to reveal how the presence or absence of certain metabolites mediates inflammatory responses. However, the specific metabolites and pathways responsible for this connection remain poorly understood. This summer, we demonstrated that BCAAs regulate cytokine secretion and therefore inflammasome activity in macrophages, likely through both mTOR dependent and independent mechanisms. Future work will expand upon these findings to fully characterizing how BCAAs regulate macrophage activity and introduce disease relevant models with deficiencies in BCAA metabolism.