Gender	Male
E-mail	yong.zhao@mssm.edu
Education and Training	Ph.D., Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
	M.D., Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences
	Fellowship, UT Southwestern Medical Center; UC San Francisco

Education and Training	Ph.D., Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
	M.D., Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences
	Fellowship, UT Southwestern Medical Center; UC San Francisco

Heart development and disease

The heart is the earliest organ that functions in the embryo. Starting early in cardiogenesis, the heart has coordinated, rhythmic contraction due to the precise initiation and transmission of electrical impulses through a specialized cardiomyocyte tissue, the cardiac conduction system. The heart is a vital and a disease-susceptible organ. Abnormalities in morphogenesis, muscle maintenance and function, and cardiac rhythm can cause a variety of heart diseases.

Small non-coding RNAs

Elucidating the molecular and cellular basis of heart disease requires an advanced understanding of the regulatory genome. Animal genomes have been found to encode numerous small non-coding RNA genes including microRNAs, as well as protein-coding genes. So far studies have revealed that these small RNAs play important roles in development and in disease.
We are interested in understanding the role of those small RNAs in cardiac muscle and in the cardiac conduction system. We hope that our studies can improve the treatment of human heart disease in the future.

 

Heart development
Cardiac conduction system
Small non-coding RNAs
microRNAs

Zhao Y, Ransom JF, Li A, Vedantham V, von Drehle M, Muth AN, Tsuchihashi T, McManus MT, Schwartz RJ, Srivastava D. Dysregulation of cardiogenesis, cardiac conduction, and cell cycle in mice lacking miRNA-1-2. Cell 2007 Apr 20; 129(2): 303-317.

Zhao Y, Srivastava D. A developmental view of microRNA function. Trends Biochem Sci 2007 April; 32(4): 189-197.

Zhao Y, Samal E, Srivastava D. Serum response factor regulates a muscle-specific microRNA that targets Hand2 during cardiogenesis. Nature 2005 Jul 14; 436(7048): 214-220.

Zhao Y, Meng XM, Wei YJ, Zhao XW, Liu DQ, Cao HQ, Liew CC, Ding JF. Cloning and characterization of a novel cardiac-specific kinase that interacts specifically with cardiac troponin I. J Mol Med 2003 May; 81(5): 297-304.

Zhao Y, Wei YJ, Cao HQ, Ding JF. Molecular Cloning of NELIN, a Putative Human Cytoskeleton Regulation Gene. Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sina 2001; 33(1): 19-24.