Soban Umar
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Pulmonary hypertension (PH), high blood pressure in the lungs' arteries, forces the right side of the heart to pump against heavy resistance until it fails. Right ventricular failure (RVF) is a major predictor of illness and death in PH, yet current drugs target only the lung blood vessels, and no approved therapy treats the failing right ventricle directly.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
Pharmacology
- Topics
pulmonary hypertension
right ventricular failure
right heart failure
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Determine how the Snai1–LOXL2–CTGF axis drives endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition, where vessel-lining cells become scar-forming cells, in right ventricles of PH rats and in human coronary artery endothelial cells.
- Determine how the Snai1–LOXL2–CTGF axis, acting through chromatin remodeling, controls right ventricular fibrosis in rat models of pulmonary hypertension and in human cardiac fibroblasts.
- Test whether tissue- or cell-specific knockdown of Snai1 and/or LOXL2, a collagen cross-linking enzyme, prevents fibrosis and rescues right ventricular failure in rats with severe pulmonary hypertension.
More about the research
The failing ventricle is marked by remodeling and fibrosis, scar-like stiffening, but the molecular causes are unclear.
Why it matters
Patients with pulmonary hypertension often die of right heart failure, and no approved treatment targets the failing right ventricle. Identifying Snai1 and LOXL2 as drivers of scarring could provide new right-ventricle-specific drug targets that may slow or reverse fibrosis and improve outcomes for these patients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sasha Prisco
University of Minnesota, MN·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Determine whether Lactobacillus supplementation reduces harmful microtubule remodeling and improves right ventricular function in monocrotaline and Sugen-hypoxia rodent models of pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Qing Lin
Ohio State University, OH·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether turning Mrgprb2 signaling, a mast-cell surface receptor pathway, up or down changes skin scarring and regeneration, using gene-modified mouse lines in wound healing models.
Peter Leary
University of Washington, WA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test in a Phase 2, single-center, randomized placebo-controlled trial whether 24 weeks of valsartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker, is safe and improves six-minute walk distance in adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
The school
University of California-Los Angeles: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 803 research doctorates a year.
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