How the Heart Heals

Miao Receives $300K AHA Award to Study Transformational Potential of Epicardial Cells to Better Understand Role in Heart Regeneration

July 25 – University of Houston College of Pharmacy Lianjie Miao, Ph.D., research assistant professor, recently was awarded a three-year, $300,000 American Heart Association (AHA) grant in support of his research into the transformational capabilities of specific precursor cells involved in cardiac regeneration following a heart attack.

Miao’s research focuses on epicardial cells, a specialized group of cardiac progenitor cells that transform into different cell types and help with the repair process. However, there are knowledge gaps in the understanding of the epicardial cells which hinders the potential application for cardiac regeneration.

"We are not sure if they are specialized to become only one type of cell or if they can develop into multiple types of cells," Miao said. "We also don’t know how these cells get activated in adult hearts after myocardial infarction (heart attack)."

Of particular interest to Miao is the potential role of the Numb and the Numb-like family of proteins in the signaling process of cell differentiation and proliferation during embryonic development and adult cardiac repair.

"We anticipate that our findings will contribute to developing new therapies that can utilize the different abilities of epicardial cells and identify molecular targets for enhancing heart protection and regeneration," Miao said.

The AHA grand program funding Miao’s work is the Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award, which commemorates the association’s 100-year anniversary by recognizing the importance of bringing novel approaches to address critical gaps in health. The award supports highly promising investigators in their early years of professional appointment as they address critical and emerging areas of research.