Anna and Abheya are off to Med School!
Exciting news for some Elrod Lab undergrads!! Anna Schmidt and Abheya Nair will be joining the Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine Class of 2028!
These two have been dedicated to their studies as well as the lab, and we are so excited to watch them take the next step in their educational career.
Congratulations Anna and Abheya!! We are so proud of you!
Lazaropoulos published in Nature Cardiovascular Research
Mike’s paper titled, “Nuclear ATP-citrate lyase regulates chromatin-dependent activation and maintenance of the myofibroblast gene program” was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research. This study details the discovery of a critical genetic mechanism driving the process of cardiac fibrosis as well as the identification a novel target for reversing cardiac fibrosis.
$11.9M PPG Awarded to Dr. Raj Kishore and Colleagues
A Project Program Grant led by Dr. Raj Kishore has been awarded! This NHLBI PPG features projects led by Dr. Doug Tilley, Dr. John Elrod, and Dr. Wally Koch (Duke). This is the 5th cardiovascular-focused PPG to be awarded to ACDC faculty in the last decade!
The center came together to celebrate this achievement. Congratulations to everyone!
Undergraduate Anya Wilkinson wins Frances Velay Fellowship
Undergraduate student, Anya Wilkinson (Class of 2026), was awarded the Frances Velay Fellowship! To be awarded this prestigious fellowship, Anya worked alongside her mentor to write a research proposal for her prospective research project. This fellowship-awarded research will be conducted this summer.
We are so proud of Anya!!
Tyler's review is out now!!
Fresh off the presses in Nature: Cardiovascular Research!! Tyler’s review highlights MICU-mediated regulation of mtCU structure and function, as well as potential mtCU-independent functions of these proteins.
Check out the review here.
Joanne Awarded CDA
Joanne was awarded the American Heart Association Career Development Award (CDA) to transition to independent faculty to study a key regulator of mitochondrial calcium efflux in heart disease.
Elrod named founding director of the acdc
Dr. John Elrod has been named founding Director of the Aging + Cardiovascular Discovery Center (ACDC). This newly formed center comes from the merger of the Center for Translation Medicine, the Cardiovascular Research Center and new recruits.
John was previously the Director of the CVRC and is now at the forefront of leading this scientific powerhouse. We are so excited for John and the exciting science that will be coming from the ACDC!
Read more about the ACDC here.
Cohen's Commentary in Cell Calcium
In the July issue of Cell Calcium, Henry discussed Israel Sekler’s recent observation that PDE2-dependent regulation of NCLX is essential for neuronal survival and contextualized these findings within existing literature.
HENRY COHEN AWARDED NIH MD/PHD FELLOWSHIP
Henry received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F30 MD/PhD Fellowship) for his project “The Role of MICU3 in Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis.
Excellent work Henry!
Jadiya published in iScience
Check out the latest from the Elrod lab in iScience! First author and former Elrod Lab postdoc Pooja Jadiya published yet another excellent paper titled “Neuronal loss of NCLX-dependent mitochondrial calcium efflux mediates age-associated cognitive decline”. Congratulations Pooja!
Check out the paper here.
Andrew Gibb Awarded CDA
Andrew was awarded the American Heart Association Career Development Award (CDA) to transition to independent faculty to study the effects of glutamine metabolism in cardiac pathological remodeling and fibrosis.
Gibb published in JMCC
Andrew’s paper titled “Glutamine uptake and catabolism is required for myofibroblast formation and persistence” was published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. This study delves deeper into his work that was published in Circulation in May 2022. This study concludes that, “glutaminolysis as necessary for myofibroblast formation and persistence, providing substantial rationale to evaluate several new therapeutic targets to treat cardiac fibrosis”.
Read Andrew’s newest publication here.
Garbincius scored the cover of the June issue of JMCC
Joanne’s work titled “Enhanced NCLX-dependent mitochondrial Ca2+ efflux attenuates pathological remodeling in heart failure” published in JMCC. Some highlights from the study: NCLX mediates mitochondrial calcium efflux, NCLX limits mito calcium accumulation upon hypertrophic stimulation as well as oxidative metabolism and protein synthesis during hypertrophy.
Read it here
And we scored the cover of the June issue in JMCC!
Dr. John Elrod Named Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center
Congratulations are in order for Dr. Elrod as he was named Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC)! John has been taking Temple by storm with top notch publications in high impact journals such as Nature, Nature Communications, and JMCC… just to name a few. John has built a highly collaborative and innovative lab and plans on bringing this culture to the CVRC at large. Furthermore, John has an extraordinary record of mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows who have since had successful careers in academia and in industry. This was also reflected when he won the Lewis Katz School of Medicine Educational Experience Award for 2022. Great things are to come to the CVRC with John at the helm!
Congratulations John, this was well deserved!
P.S. No, John did not write this about himself.
Gibb's research letter published in Circulation
Senior post-doc, Dr. Andrew Gibb’s newest work, a research letter, titled “Glutaminolysis is Essential for Myofibroblast Persistence and In Vivo Targeting Reverses Fibrosis and Cardiac Dysfunction in Heart Failure” was published in Circulation. This study identifies “glutaminolysis as a critical mediator of myofibroblast persistence in a murine model of HF and in CFs isolated directly from failing human hearts”.
Read the research letter here
The review of a life time: Garbincius publishes a monster review for APS
Dr. Joanne Garbincius published a monster review in APS simply titled “Mitochondrial calcium exchange in physiology and disease”. This work highlights everything that researchers in the field have discovered thus far on the subject of mitochondrial calcium exchange in physiology and in disease.
Check out the 101 page review in APS!
Molecular Signature of HFpEF: Systems Biology in a Cardiac-Centric Large Animal Model
Dive into Andrew’s OMICs study defining changes in the metabolome and transcriptome in a model of HFpEF, in the August Issue of JACC: Basic to Translational Science.
The issue included a commentary by the McKinsey lab, “Cat-apulting Toward a Molecular Understanding of HFpEF”.
News portals highlighting the work:
Review published in Acta Neuropathologica Communications
Pooja and Joanne teamed up to write an extensive review of mitochondrial and metabolic dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease development and progression, “Reappraisal of metabolic dysfunction in neurodegeneration: Focus on mitochondrial function and calcium signaling” published in the July issue of Acta Neuropathologica Communications (https://doi.org/10.1186/s40478-021-01224-4).
Garbincius and Elrod Commentary published in circulation research
Joanne and John published a commentary on the controversies of mitochondrial calcium content in heart disease entitled, “Is the failing heart starved of mitochondrial calcium?” published in the April 16th issue of Circulation Research (PMID: 33856917).
