The Lee Laboratory
Faculty > Youngsook Lee
Youngsook Lee
Professor, Anatomy
youngsooklee@wisc.edu
Organ System/Disease Focus
Heart/congenital heart defects and adult cardiac disease
Aligned Research Focus
Cardiomyogenesis/stem cell derived cardiac myocytes
Research Description
The long-term goal of our laboratory team is to determine the molecular mechanisms that control cardiovascular development.
Malformations of the heart account for the largest number of human birth defects, about 1% of live births. Despite this high frequency of occurrence, the molecular mechanisms that lead to congenital heart defects remain poorly understood. Therefore, identifying and characterizing the factors that control cardiac development are important steps toward understanding the genesis of congenital heart defects and important clinical disorders such as cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure.
Specifically, we perform genome-based approaches to identify novel factors critical for normal cardiac development. Several genes necessary for cardiac development were identified, and we are currently investigating the molecular/developmental roles of these genes. We combine interdisciplinary sciences to address the fundamental questions of the cardiovascular organogenesis and cardiac disease at the molecular, cellular and developmental levels.
Embryonic stem cells provide a useful tool to study the molecular mechanisms of cardiomyogenesis. One goal of stem cell research is the development of specialized cells such as heart muscle cells. The directed differentiation of embryonic stem cells is vital to the ultimate use of such cells in the development of new therapies.
Selected References
He J-Q, Ma Y, Lee Y, Thomson JA, Kamp TJ. Human embryonic stem cells develop into multiple types of cardiac myocytes. Circulation Research. 93:32-39, 2003. (An editorial article on this paper.)
Jung J, Kim T-G, Lyons GE, Kim HRC, Lee Y. Jumonji regulates cardiomyocyte proliferation via interaction with retinoblastoma protein. J. Biological Chemistry. 280:30916-30923. 2005.
Kim K-H, Antkiewicz DS, Yan L, Eliceiri KW, Heideman W, Peterson RE, Lee Y. Lrrc10 is required for early heart development and function in zebrafish. Developmental Biology 308:494-506. 2007.
Kim K-H, Kim T-G, Micales B, Lyons GE, Lee Y. Dynamic expression patterns of Leucine Rich Repeat containing protein 10 in the heart. Developmental Dynamics 236:2225-234. 2007.