The Lyons Laboratory
Faculty > Gary E. Lyons
Gary E. Lyons
Professor, Cell and Regenerative Biology
gelyons@facstaff.wisc.edu
Organ System/Disease Focus
Cardiovascular system, cardiovascular disease, acute and chronic heart disease
Aligned Research Focus
Tissue engineering of myocardium, identification and characterization of cardiac stem cells
Research Description
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Embryonic and adult stem cells hold the promise of being able to restore normal function to diseased organs such as the heart. Prior to use in humans, stem cell-based organ regeneration must be tested in animal models. In collaboration with the lab of Timothy Kamp, M.D., Ph.D., my lab is studying the potential of mouse embryonic (ES) cells and ES cell-derived cardiac progenitors to repopulate the heart following myocardial infarction.
We have found that ES cells and their derivatives can regenerate cardiac muscle and the two elements of arteries, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells, in the absence of an immune response or teratoma formation. In vitro models of stem cell-derived tissues such as cardiac muscle help us understand the basic biology of stem cell differentiation and provide a valuable mechanism for pharmacological testing on human tissues.
In collaboration with the lab of Brenda Ogle, Ph.D., we are studying the role of extracellular matrix in the regulation of regeneration of the heart following injury.
Selected References
Jung JP, Squirrell JM, Lyons GE, Eliceiri KW, Ogle BM. Imaging cardiac extracellular matrices: a blueprint for regeneration. Trends Biotechnol. 2012 Apr;30(4):233-40. PMID:22209562
Buschke DG, Squirrell JM, Ansari H, Smith MA, Rueden CT, Williams JC, Lyons GE, Kamp TJ, Eliceiri KW, Ogle BM. Multiphoton flow cytometry to assess intrinsic and extrinsic fluorescence in cellular aggregates: applications to stem cells. Microsc Microanal. 2011 Aug;17(4):540-54. PMID: 20684798
Mohr JC, Zhang J, Azarin SM, Soerens AG, de Pablo JJ, Thomson JA, Lyons GE, Palecek SP, Kamp TJ. The microwell control of embryoid body size in order to regulate cardiac differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. Biomaterials. 2010 Mar;31(7):1885-93. PMID:19945747
Kamp TJ, Lyons GE. On the road to iPS cell cardiovascular applications. Circ Res. 2009 Sep 25;105(7):617-9. PMID:19797193