We are recruiting talented graduate/undergraduate students to join us and study the heart!
​We are also looking for a motivated postdoctoral researcher to join our team!
Research Background
Calcium (Ca) is required for cardiac contraction. It controls not only the strength of cardiac contraction, but also heart rhythm. Within a cardiac muscle cell, Ca cycles on a beat-to-beat basis, in a way that is consistent with the rhythmic cardiac activity. Ca is
released from the intracellular Ca store—the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR)—through the channel protein ryanodine receptor (RyR2) to induce contraction. The released Ca must be brought back to the SR to allow relaxation to occur.
Research Background
This Ca cycling process is sometimes adversely altered. For instance, instead of the regulated Ca releasing with every heartbeat, Ca can leak from the RyR2 channel spontaneously, which contributes to cardiac pathologies such as ventricular arrhythmias and even heart failure. Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is a life-threatening Ca-dependent arrhythmia caused by genetic mutations identified in the RyR2 channel complex. The mechanism of CPVT involves aberrant spontaneous Ca release through dysregulated or “leaky” RyR2 channels, which activates Ca-dependent depolarizing currents, thereby causing triggered arrhythmia.
Our Goal
The Liu lab’s research interests focus on understanding the molecular mechanism underlying Ca-dependent cardiac dysfunctions and developing novel mechanism-based therapeutics. Primary experimental approaches include live cell imaging using fluorescent confocal microscopy and in-vivo cardiac functional studies, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings in genetic mouse models of cardiac diseases.
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One of the current projects in her lab is to explore how the Ca-dependent crosstalk between SR and mitochondria impacts disease phenotype in different heart disease settings. Future projects will focus on 1) identifying novel molecular mechanisms underlying Ca-dependent arrhythmias or other Ca-related cardiac dysfunctions, including prediabetes and diabetes, 2) explore the impact of nutrition/diet on cardiac physiology and pathophysiology. 3) identify new epigenetic regulators of cardiac contractile function and/or heart rhythm.