MHI Seminar Series presents Yibing Qyang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine & Pathology; Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Summary of Seminar:  Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited cardiac disease and is typically caused by mutations in genes encoding sarcomeric proteins that regulate cardiac contractility. How dysregulated sarcomeric force production is sensed and leads to pathological remodeling remains poorly understood in HCM. Dr. Qyang’s Lab derived cardiomyocytes from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and developed robust engineered heart tissues to study human cardiac mechanobiology at both the cellular and tissue levels. Dr. Qyang will discuss a new mechanotransduction pathway in HCM based on their computational modeling for muscle contraction and rescue of disease phenotype by gene editing and pharmacological interventions. In addition, he will discuss the progress and challenges in the generation of mechanically robust tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) for treating cardiovascular diseases, using vascular smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells derived from human iPSCs. To develop readily available vascular grafts, they have decellularized hiPSC-TEVGs based on an efficient decellularization approach. They have also successfully endothelialized decellularized hiPSC-TEVGs with hiPSC-derived ECs under shear stress in a flow bioreactor. Immunologically “universal” hiPSCs will be discussed in order to make hiPSC-TEVG readily available for vascular treatment. These studies may provide a foundation for future production of non-immunogenic hiPSC-TEVGs for treating cardiovascular diseases.

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Pagano Conference Room (LCCC 00-002)
450 West Dr.
Chapel HIll, North Carolina 27599
United States
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