Jason Hong
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a fatal disease in which the blood vessels of the lungs thicken and narrow. This remodeling forces the right side of the heart to work harder until it fails.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Pharmacology
Genetics
- Topics
pulmonary arterial hypertension
pulmonary hypertension
right ventricular failure
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Define how asporin blocks both TGF-β and EGFR signaling and what controls its protein levels in PAH pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells, using receptor-binding, drug-synergy, protein-stability and ubiquitination assays.
- Test whether asporin can reverse established disease in Sugen-hypoxia rats, which cells mediate its effects using cell-specific Aspn deletion in Cre-lox mice, and its activity in human precision-cut lung slices.
- Establish whether blood asporin levels predict PAH severity and transplant-free survival, using prospective, multicenter and spatial transcriptomic patient cohorts.
- Pinpoint which lung cell types carry the PAH-linked "pink" gene module, using single-nucleus RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics of human PAH lungs.
- Test whether knocking down pink-module candidate driver genes such as ANTXR1 changes the behavior of PAH pulmonary vascular cells in vitro.
More about the research
Up to 55% of high-risk patients die within three years of diagnosis, and there is no cure. The research uses RNA sequencing of the largest biobank of human PAH and control lungs to find genes that drive the disease. It then tests leading candidates in cells, animals and patient groups as possible treatment targets and biomarkers, which are measurable signs of disease.
Why it matters
Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension have few options that change the course of the disease. This work could yield a new treatment approach based on boosting asporin, and a blood test that may help doctors predict severity and survival for more precise care. Identifying new driver genes in diseased lungs could also reveal further drug targets for this fatal condition.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yuanjun Shen
Binghamton University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Examine how Vps34, an enzyme that drives smooth muscle overgrowth, is activated in PAH lung arteries through Akt-dependent loss of phosphorylation at Ser164, including candidate phosphatases identified by computer analysis.
Sanda Predescu
Rush University, IL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Validate that Xist, a long non-coding RNA that silences one X chromosome in females, is more highly expressed and active in female pulmonary arterial hypertension lung tissue and pulmonary artery endothelial cells.
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.
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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