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Lilei Zhang

Zhang

Lilei Zhang, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Positions

Associate Professor
Molecular and Human Genetics
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Houston, TX, US
Associate Professor
Internal Medicine
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Associate Professor
Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
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Faculty Member
Genetics & Genomics Graduate Program
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Faculty Member
Development, Disease Models, & Therapeutics Graduate Program
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Addresses

BCM-MD Anderson Hall (Office)
Room: BCMA-441E
Houston, TX, 77030
United States
Phone: (713) 798-2285

Education

MD from Peking University Health Science Center
07/2001 - Beijing, China
PhD from Johns Hopkins University
05/2006 - Baltimore, Maryland
Human Genetics and Molecular Biology
Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University
05/2008 - Baltimore, Maryland
Internship at University Hospitals Case Medical Center
06/2009 - Cleveland, Ohio
Internal Medicine
Residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center
06/2012 - Cleveland, Ohio
Internal Medicine
Fellowship at University Hospital Case Medical Center
07/2013 - Cleveland, Ohio
Medical Genetics
Postdoctoral Fellowship at Case Western Reserve University
08/2016 - Cleveland, Ohio

Certifications

Texas Medical Board
Ohio Medical Board
American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics
American Board of Internal Medicine

Professional Interests

  • Genetic and Epigenetic regulation of heart failure and cardiomyopathies
  • Investigate the pathogenesis and treatment for inherited cardiac diseases using iPSC-CM model

Professional Statement

Our overarching mission is to translate the study of genetic and epigenetic regulation of cardiovascular disease into novel therapeutic approaches. One of our research focuses is circadian gene regulation in cardiac remodeling. Our work covers the entire circadian regulatory landscape, from the core clock to the slave clock, to the effectors. We discovered that core clock factor REV-ERB is protective for cardiac pathological remodeling and pharmacological activation of REV-ERB prevents heart failure progression even in late-stages. We recently expanded this finding to both HFrEF and HFpEF models and mechanistically demonstrated that REV-ERB suppressed aberrant gene expression, which is required for heart failure development and progression. This was the first example of treating heart failure by manipulating circadian machineries and shows great promise to complement current standard of care. Our finding is now being accelerated towards IND. We also established the very first cardiac slave clock, KLF15, which controls the circadian ischemia reperfusion injury in the heart via regulating NAD+.
Another focus of our laboratory is to study inherited cardiac diseases using induced pluripotent stem cell differentiated cardiomyocyte (iPSC-CM) model. We have recently demonstrated that folate can terminate otherwise lethal and recalcitrant arrhythmia in patients with TANGO2 deficiency disorder. This result corroborates what we have observed in large patient cohort and isolated case reports. Additionally, we use iPSC-CMs combined with genome editing, a battery of high throughput phenotyping and machine learning tools to answer human genetics questions in inherited cardiac diseases, including identifying novel disease genes, interpreting variants, understanding disease mechanisms, and testing novel therapeutic strategies.

Selected Publications

  • Xu W, Cao Y, Stephens SB, Arredondo MJ, Chen Y, Perez W, Sun L, Yu AC, Kim JJ, Lalani SR, Li N, Horrigan FT, Altamirano F, Wehrens XH, Miyake CY, Zhang L. " " JCI Insight. 2024 Jun 10; 9 : e171005.
    Pubmed PMID: .
  • Miyake CY, Mackenzie SJ, Zhang L. " " Heart Rhythm. 2024 ; 21 : 707-709.
    Pubmed PMID: .
  • Xu W, Billon C, Li H, Wilderman A, Qi L, Graves A, Rideb JRDC, Zhao Y, Hayes M, Yu K, Losby M, Hampton CS, Adeyemi CM, Hong SJ, Nasiotis E, Fu C, Oh TG, Fan W, Downes M, Welch RD, Evans RM, Milosavljevic A, Walker JK, Jensen BC, Pei L, Burris T, Zhang L.. " " Circulation. 2024 Nov 14; 149 (3) : 227-250.
    Pubmed PMID: .
  • Le Li , Hui Li , Chih-Liang Tien , Mukesh K. Jain , Lilei Zhang. " " Circulation. 2020 Apr 27; 141 (17) : 1427-1429.
    Pubmed PMID: .

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