Research

The Wang lab is interested in the molecular and genetic regulation of cardiovascular and craniofacial development, disease and regeneration. With the goal to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools for cardiovascular and craniofacial diseases, we use a combination of approaches in our studies including mouse genetics, transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics, genome editing, molecular and biochemical techniques, imaging, statistics and bioinformatics.

Research focus I: The cardiac conduction system (CCS), a tissue net work in heart that required for initiating and maintaining regular rhythmic heartbeats. 

Dysfunction of CCS leads to cardiac arrhythmias, leading causes for morbidity and mortality, also increase health care costs worldwide.  Numerous inherited human syndromes display CCS defects and many common acquired conditions such as drug toxicity, aging, and myocardial ischemia/infarction also cause CCS dysfunction. Although the clinical significance is considerable, the understanding of the CCS molecular regulation has been largely limited for decades due to technical barriers to study the CCS. Benefit from the recently developed new tools and with the long term goal of developing novel methods to treat CCS dysfunction, we are currently investigating the function and molecular regulatory mechanism of the CCS development, homeostasis and regeneration.

Projects study CCS development, homeostasis and regeneration, as well as CCS aging and diseases.

Research focus II: The neural crest (NC), a migratory multipotent cell population that transiently exists in vertebrate embryogenesis.

NC cells differentiate into various derivatives that contribute significantly to tissues and organs such as the head and heart. Because of the tremendous capacity to diversify, the NC is an outstanding model system to study developmental cell fate transitions. Several NC derivatives, such as cranial bone, have capacity to regenerate, providing an opportunity to understand the developmental influence on adult tissue regeneration. Moreover, abnormal NC development gives rise to many common congenital human birth defects such as cleft lip/palate and cardiac out flow tract (OFT) malformation, and various genetic syndromes. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of NC development has exceptional clinical value in potential application in regenerative medicine and treating congenital defects, and broad impacts to biomedicine.

Projects study NCCs proliferation/migration/stemness/cell fate decisions and NCCs derived heart development and congenital heart diseases, as well as NCCs derived cranial skeleton formation, repair and regeneration.