|
|
CVRI Scientists
Advanced technologies
Elias H Botvinick, M.D.
Professor In Residence
Research Interests:
Nuclear medicine, nuclear cardiology, PET/CT, MRI, CT, cardiac cardiology, echocardiology, nuclear magnetic resonance, cardiovascular imaging, stress testimg, heart, myocardial perfusion, scintigraphy, coronary, sychrony, sychronization
Summary:
My research centers on a collaborative effort to develop noninvasive imaging methods for the identification and evaluation of cardiac anatomy and pathophysiology, and apply them to the diagnosis, risk stratification and monitoring of clinical disease. The work is centered on nuclear medicine methods, PET and SPECT, as well as echocardiography, MRI, and CT.
|
Pao-Tien Chuang, M.D. , Ph.D.
Assoc Professor In Residence
Research Interests:
Cell-cell signaling during mammalian development and in postnatal physiology
Summary:
We use mouse as a model system to understand how embryos develop. This knowledge is critical for understanding the basis of human congenital defects. Moreover, many adult diseases have their origin in development. Thus, our studies have important implications for developing stem cell therapy and identifying the cause of cancers.
|
Zev Jordan Gartner, M.S. , Ph.D.
Acting Assistant Professor
Research Interests:
Summary:
We use RNA and DNA, a cell's molecular information carriers, as structural components to build and perturb living systems.
|
Arthur C Hill, M.D.
Prof of Clinical Surgery
Research Interests:
Vascular biology, biomimetics, and New Technology in Cardiovascular Surgery.
Summary:
Arthur Hill is a member of the Faculty, Depatment of Surgery, Division of Caridiovascular Surgery, at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Hill did a Post-Graduate Research Fellowship at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF. Clinical training included General Surgery Residency at UCLA, Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship at Stanford University, Heart and Lung Transplant Fellowship at Stanford University, and Associate Staff Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. Clinical interests include adult Coronary Revascularization, Aortic Surgery, Mitral Valve Repair, Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery, and non-Cardiac Thoracic Surgery (including surgery for MDRTB). Research interests include vascular biology, biomimetics, and New Technology in Cardiovascular Surgery.
|
Pui-Yan Kwok, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor In Residence
Research Interests:
Genetic analysis of complex traits, DNA technology development
Summary:
We are developing efficient methods to analyze single DNA molecules and applying molecular genetic tools to identify genetic factors associated with complex human traits such as longevity, sudden cardiac arrest, stroke, psoriasis, lupus, and kidney transplantation outcome. We are also conducting studies to identify genetic factors associated with drug response.
The overall goal of our research is to develop the tools for genetic analysis of whole genomes and apply these tools to elucidate the genetic factors associated with common human diseases and phenotypes. The sequencing of the human genome and the mapping of common genetic variation by the International HapMap Consortium, in which our lab participated, have inspired an explosion of new technologies, accelerating identification of genetic susceptibility loci.
Our phenotypes of interest include kidney transplantation outcomes, longevity, pharmacogenetics of membrane transporters, sudden cardiac death, psoriasis, skin cancer and brian vascular malformations and hemorrhage.
|
Wendell A Lim, Ph.D.
Professor
Research Interests:
Signal transduction, synthetic biology, systems biology, structural biology, protein-protein interactions, cell motility, MAP kinase cascades, GTPase pathways
Summary:
Wendell Lim's Lab is working on creating a detailed instruction manual - a sort of user's guide - that explains how biochemical circuits control a cell's function and ultimately its fate. The long-term goal is to use the instruction manual to help scientists design cells to deliver therapeutic payloads, repair cancerous lesions, or attack microscopic pathogens. Cells are complex mechanical and sensing devices that can carry out highly complex tasks, such as secreting antibodies or forming repair structures like blood clots and bone. Cells contain signaling pathways that take in and integrate vast amounts of information about the cells' environment, and they process and use this information to make complex decisions about how to respond to changing environmental conditions. If more is understood about how these processes work, there is the potential to change cells and help solve problems in biotechnology or health, and to treat disease more rationally.
|
Michael J Mann, M.D.
Research Interests:
1. Molecular/cellular biology and molecular genetics of atherosclerosis and heart failure.
2. Development of hybrid surgical and molecular/cellular therapies for heart disease.
3. Stem and progenitor cell transplantation for cardiovascular regeneration.
4. Cardiovascular tissue engineering.
5. Reduction to clinical practice of current methods in genetic, molecular and cellular disease intervention.
6. Novel targeted molecular therapies for lung cancer.
7. Molecular profiling of cancers for personalized medicine.
8. Development of novel methods of in vivo/ex vivo gene therapy and gene transfer.
9. Novel approaches to therapeutic neovascularization for coronary and peripheral ischemic disease.
10. Cardiovascular cell cycle biology.
11. Myocardial gene therapy.
Summary:
Dr. Mann's research focuses on the molecular and cellular biology of heart disease with an emphasis on practical ways to develop new treatments for heart failure. These involve potential gene and molecular therapies, combinations of molecular and cell-based treatments with surgical reconstruction, and evaluation of novel materials for the development of bioartificial replacements of lost or damaged heart tissue.
|
Daniel L Minor, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Research Interests:
Membrane proteins; potassium channels, calcium channels
Summary:
Hearts, brains, muscles, and senses require electrical signals to function. We aim to understand the basic cellular components responsible for generating electrical activity. We focus on understanding the structure, function, and regulation of ion channels from a high-resolution viewpoint, understanding how channel mutations cause disease, and on developing new tools for controlling channel function.
|
Nelson B Schiller, M.D.
Professor of Cardiology
Research Interests:
Dr. Schiller specializes in the use of echocardiography in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease.
His research interests center around the quantitation of left ventricular function by quantitative two-dimensional echocardiography and Doppler.
Summary:
Measuring the heart has been a preoccupation of civilizations since ancient Egypt. Measuring the heart using noninvasive techniques that are free of ionizing radiation has riveted the attention of modern medicine because knowledge of the size of the heart's anatomic parts provides powerful diagnostic and therapeutic information. Dr. Nelson B. Schiller a member of the Department of Medicine, Cardiology Division, CVRI and John J. Sampson-Lucie Stern Endowed Chair in Cardiology, has spent his career investigating the application of echocardiography to the precise measurement and clinical application of the volume, weight and hemodynamics of the chambers and valves of the heart. His work is currently centered on the Heart and Soul Study (Mary Whooley, MD PI), where echocardiography measurements are being related to outcomes of heart disease.
|
Robin M. Shaw, M.D., Ph.D.
Asst Professor In Residence
Research Interests:
Cardiac Electrophysiology, Ion Channels, Arrhythmia, Sudden Cardiac Death, Heart Failure
Summary:
The basic function of the heart is to work as a pump, circulating blood through the lungs and the rest of the body. Each heartbeat, millions of individual heart cells contract in synchrony for one overall large contraction. Improper contraction results in congestive heart failure and improper synchrony results in sudden cardiac death. My laboratory studies the basic biology of heart cell contraction and synchronous communication with a goal of developing novel treatment strategies of both heart failure and sudden cardiac death.
|
Paul C Simpson, M.D.
Prof In Rsdn
Research Interests:
Molecular & cellular mechanisms of myocardial hypertrophy and heart failure
Adrenergic receptors, signaling, and drug development
Summary:
Dr. Simpson is working to develop new drugs to treat heart failure, one of the most common causes of hospitalization and death in the USA and Western World. He has recently identified a promising drug target, alpha-1-adrenergic receptors, and is
working to translate this into clinical use.
|
Matthew L Springer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor In Residence
Research Interests:
Angiogenesis, VEGF, stem cells, progenitor cells, gene therapy, heart failure, myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, cardiac regeneration, peripheral artery disease, vascular injury, nitric oxide, flavanols, skeletal muscle myoblasts, secondhand smoke
Summary:
Our research interests include cell therapy and gene therapy approaches to studying cardiovascular disease, with the goals of exploring potential treatments and understanding underlying mechanisms involved in angiogenesis, vascular function, and treatments for myocardial infarction. The laboratory is studying differential responses of cardiac and skeletal muscle to angiogenic gene therapy in mice, focusing on effects of VEGF and pleiotrophin on the vasculature. Further interests center in the therapeutic effects of bone marrow cell implantation into the heart after myocardial infarction, using an ultrasound-guided injection approach that we have developed in collaboration with the Yeghiazarians lab, with a special emphasis on the therapeutic implications of the age and cardiac disease status of the cell donor. Similarly, the lab is studying the effects of age and disease on circulating endothelial progenitor cells, with a focus on the roles of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and nitric oxide in the function of these cells. Lastly, we have developed a rat model of endothelium-dependent flow-mediated vasodilation, and are using it to examine mechanisms underlying vascular reactivity and how they are affected by cigarette smoke exposure and dietary flavanols.
|
Mark E Von Zastrow, Ph.D., M.D.
Professor
Research Interests:
Subcellular organization and dynamics of receptor-mediated signaling systems in eukaryotic cells.
Summary:
Our laboratory studies mechanisms by which receptors that control cardiovascular biology are regulated. These receptors are important therapeutic targets and their regulation is known to be disturbed in a number of important disease states.
|
Orion D Weiner, Ph.D.
Asst Professor In Residence
Research Interests:
Cell polarity, chemotaxis, actin cytoskeleton, cell signaling, cell migration, microscopy, biochemistry, neutrophils, systems biology, self-organization, inflammation, Rac, PI3Kinase, WAVE complex.
Summary:
Proper movement in response to cues from the outside world is as important for single cells as it is for drivers on a busy highway. If cues are misinterpreted or the movement goes awry, terrible accidents ensue, the delicate wiring of the nervous system fails, single-celled organisms can`t hunt or mate, the immune system ceases to function properly, and cancer cells spread from one part of the body to another. How do single cells, without the benefit of a brain, interpret the subtle micro-world of attractants and repellents to decide where to go? Our research focuses on dissecting the inner workings of the cellular "compass" used to guide cells on their journey. Because the core of the compass has been conserved over more than a billion years of evolution, we have been able to combine discoveries from yeast to humans to glimpse some rough outlines of the underlying machinery. However, many of the important connections are still missing. Our research focuses on identifying these key missing components and how they are wired together to process information with the hope that we can eventually make cells move when (and where) we want them to and stop them when we don`t.
|
Ethan J Weiss, M.D.
Research Interests:
Coagulation, thrombosis, hemostasis, fibrinolysis, genetics, platelet, sexual dimorphism, sex hormone signaling.
Summary:
The blood clotting system is centrally important as a means to protect from blood loss. To do so, the system must be sensitive to disruptions in blood vessels. We know from naturally occurring human genetic mutations and experiments in animals that a deficiency of function or amount of clotting related proteins leads to bleeding. Yet the system must also be specific. There is an equal body of evidence that unregulated or increased propensity to form blood clots leads to deleterious clot formation such as occurs in heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots in large veins. The clotting system therefore must maintain exquisite balance between tendency toward clotting and tendency toward bleeding. Minor changes in concentration or function of a host of known and countless unknown proteins can tip the balance in either direction. Primarily, we use the mouse as a model system to define genetic regulation of blood clotting in an attempt to define genetic changes that might predispose to tipping the balance in either direction. We hope to learn more about the molecules and pathways that lead to clot formation. We hope to define novel molecules or pathways that regulate clotting or interact with known clotting pathways. We are particularly interested in how male or female sex affects clotting in animals. We know that women are 1) less likely to form clots in clotting tests and 2) are protected as compared to men in diseases associated with increased clotting like heart attacks. This tells us that women may have evolved a system with a more favorable balance between clotting and bleeding. We hope to learn how and why that may be. Ultimately, we hope to identify new risk factors for bleeding disorders as well as the clotting associated diseases such as heart attack and stroke. Furthermore, we hope that by understanding the biological mechanisms underlying such risks, we might eventually identify novel drug targets aimed at treating or preventing bleeding, stroke, heart attack or blood clots.
|
Zena Werb, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Chair
Research Interests:
Extracellular communication in development and disease
Summary:
The cellular microenvironment provides cells with information essential for controling development , cell-specific fate determination, gain or loss of tissue-specific functions, cell migrations, tissue repair and cell death. We are studying the role of the microenvironment in controlling embryonic development, mammary gland and bone development and tumorigenesis. Our interests include the critical roles that the ECM, inflammatoryand innate immune cells, vascular development and angiogenesis and degradative enzymes such as the matrix metalloproteinases play in these processes. We are taking genetic and molecular approaches to determine the identity and function of the critical molecules, how their expression and activities are regulated, what the molecular and cellular targets of these genes are, and how these regulate the signaling pathways. We are studying how a developing vascular system regulates bone formation, breast development and tumor growth. For example, we have found that tumor cells metastasize in regions of the tumor where blood vessels are abnormal and where there are abundant inflammatory cells. We want to understand the temporal, spatial and causal relationship between these three compartments, and whether targeting the tumors cells, blood vessels or the inflammatory cells, or all of them can slow down metastasis.
|
Prescott G Woodruff, M.D., M.P.H.
Asst Professor In Residence
Research Interests:
Genomics, Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Stereology, Epidemiology, Clinical Trials, Medical Education
Summary:
My research relates to two common lung diseases, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and falls into three specific categories: 1) the identification of molecular sub-phenotypes of these diseases, 2) the elucidation of mechanisms of inflammation and remodeling in these diseases and 3) clinical trials of novel therapies.
|
|
|
