The Science of Regenerative Medicine with Ellen Lien, PhD, USC Keck School of Medicine

The McAllister Heart Institute Seminar Series presents Ching-Ling (Ellen) Lien, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Summary of Seminar:  Heart failure is the leading cause of death globally. Novel therapeutic interventions are needed to improve the regenerative response of damaged or diseased human hearts and improve heart functions. Zebrafish provide a unique opportunity to study cardiac regeneration since they have the remarkable capacity to regenerate hearts naturally. We have characterized the process and signaling pathways involved in coronary and cardiac lymphatic vessel development and heart regeneration in zebrafish. We observed sex-dependent differences in cardiac lymphatic vessel development. Furthermore, we discovered that cardiac lymphatic vessels associate with coronary arteries in zebrafish, consistent with that in human fetal hearts. Using scRNA-seq and snMultiomic analyses, we analyzed the gene expression and chromatin landscape in zebrafish and human fetal hearts to determine evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of cardiac lymphatic vessel development. We further explored how these mechanisms can be applied to enhance heart regeneration in mammals.

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