报告人：Kathy O. Lui, D.Phil

主持人：李维达教授

时间：3月14日星期一 10：30——11:30

地点：医学大楼1102室

Research Focus

      In a cell-free approach to regenerative therapeutics, transient application of paracrine factors in vivo could be used to alter the behavior and cell fate of progenitor cells with the hope to achieve sustained clinical benefits. In this talk, we will demonstrate an effective approach to induce heart regeneration via intramyocardial injection of synthetic modified RNA (modRNA) encoding human vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) which results in expansion and directed differentiation of endogenous heart progenitors in a mouse myocardial infarction model. VEGF-A modRNA markedly improved heart function and enhanced long-term survival of recipients. This improvement was in part due to mobilization of epicardial progenitor cells and redirection of their lineage commitment toward the cardiovascular cell fates. Our results suggest that modRNA is a versatile approach for expressing paracrine factors as cell fate switches to control progenitor cell fate and thereby enhance long-term organ repair.

Employment and Education

      Dr. Kathy Lui received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Philosophy degrees from the Department of Biochemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
      Dr. Lui completed her Ph.D in the field of Stem Cell Immunology at Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, U.K.
      Dr. Lui received the Croucher Foundation Fellowship and continued her postdoctoral training in the field of Stem Cells and Vascular Regeneration at Massachusetts General Hospital and Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, U.S.
      Dr. Lui is now an Assistant Professor at Department of Chemical Pathology and a principal investigator at Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences, Prince of Wales Hospital, CUHK.
Selected Publications

1. Lui KO*, et al. (2014) Tolerance induction to human stem cell transplants with extension to their differentiated progeny. Nature Communications. 5:5629. (*Correspondence )
2. Lui KO. (2014). VEGFA: the inductive angiogenic factor for development, regeneration and function of pancreatic beta cells. Curr Stem Cell Res Ther 9:396-400.
3. Zangi L*, Lui KO*,et al. (2013). Modified mRNA directs the fate of heart progenitor cells and induces vascular regeneration after myocardial infarction. Nature Biotechnology. 31:898-907. (*Co-first author)
4. Lui KO*,et al. (2013). Driving vascular endothelial cell fate of the human multipotent Isl1+ heart progenitors with VEGF-A modified mRNA. Cell Research. 23:1172-1186. (*Correspondence)