Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2009

Mentor: Zhi-Ping Liu
Department: Internal Medicine-Cardiology
Room number:NB11.110
Mail Code:
Phone number:81485
E-mail:liu@arnie.swmed.edu
Project title: role of JMJD2A, a trimethyllysine specific histone demethylase in cardiac remodeling.

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects) Basic research

Brief Description of Project:

The student will work with my current post-doc to characterize the hypertrophic phenotype of thoracic aortic band (TAB) JMJD2A-tg mice and test whether JMJD2A modulates specific subset(s) of stress signaling pathways. The second specific aim is to elucidate the mechanism(s) by which JMJD2A regulates Kv4.2 transcription by testing whether a demethylase-dead mutant JMJD2A (JMJD2A-H188A) has an inhibitory effect on transcription of Kv4.2 , a potassium channel similar to that of WT JMJD2A in cultured cardiomyocytes, (B) identify the Kv4.2 genomic region(s) that binds to JMJD2A using chromatin immune-precipitation assays (ChIPs), (C) test whether JMJD2A inhibits Kv4.2 transcription alone or synergistically with other transcriptional repressor(s) including HDACs using Kv4.2-promoter-driven-luciferase reporter assay.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

None.