Description:

The Department of Pharmacology invites you to a seminar presented by Gangjian Qin, MD, FAHA. Dr. Qin is a Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering and the Director of the Molecular Cardiology Program at University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Qin’s research program is dedicated to defining the molecular mechanisms that underlie cardiovascular biology and contribute to the recovery from cardiovascular disease, and to translating the results from these basic science investigations to clinical applications.

Below is a summary of the seminar as described by Dr. Qin:

Ischemic heart disease remains the leading cause of disability and death. Despite technological advancement in therapeutics, the hospitalization rate is still rising. Adult stem/progenitor cell therapy is a promising therapeutic option, however, is hampered by limited differentiation potential and poor survival. This seminar will introduce our recent progress in the research of transcription factor E2F1 as a critical regulator in the oxidative metabolism and endothelial cell differentiation of bone marrow endothelial progenitor cells and of long non-coding RNA myocardial infarction associated transcript (MIAT) as a survival factor in the DNA damage response of cardiac stem cells. A better understanding of stem/progenitor cell differentiation and survival at ischemic injury may aid design of better strategies of cell therapy to repair damaged myocardium.