Topic: Modeling heart and kidney diseases in Drosophila
Speaker: Professor Han Zhe, Department of Medicine and Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMD)
Date and time: July 22, 15:30–16:30
Venue: Auditorium, L Building
Host: Liu Ji-Long
Abstract:
Genes and genetic pathways regulating heart development, cardiac function, and kidney filtration structure & function are conserved from Drosophila to humans, making it possible to use the powerful genetic tools available in Drosophila to model and study heart and kidney diseases. Over the past decade, my lab has developed sophisticated tools to introduce human genetic variants into the Drosophila heart and kidney, as well as a series of cardiac and renal morphological and functional assays in Drosophila. We also established Drosophila platforms to provide functional validation for large numbers of genetic variants identified from heart and kidney disease patients. In this talk, I will discuss how we established Drosophila as a model for congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathy, nephrotic syndrome and APOL1 nephropathy. I will also present some examples of Drosophilaprecision disease models that we generated, and how to use them to establish genetic variant causal association, discover disease mechanisms, and test mechanism-based treatments.
Biography:
2022—present Professor (tenured), Department of Medicine and Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine
2019–2022 Associate Professor (tenured), Department of Medicine and Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine
2014–2019 Associate Professor (tenured), Children’s National Health System; Department of Genomics and Precision Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences