Theme：Mitochondrial Regulation of Cardiac Degeneration

Host：Dr. Moshi Song

Time：4th April, 2020, 10:00-11:40

Location: Zoom

Abstract: 

Mitochondria are bioenergetic engines fueling cellular activities. Mitochondrial health is essential to cellular fitness, whereas mitochondrial senescence or dysfunction is implicated in various diseases. Despite the importance of mitochondria in the heart, the underlying mechanisms how mitochondria regulate cardiac homeostasis remain to be discovered. Through the studies of mitophagy, mitochondrial dynamism, mitochondrial function and metabolism in cultured fibroblasts, iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, Drosophila heart tubes, and mouse hearts at different developmental stages, we have elucidated the role and significance of mitochondrial quality control in perinatal, adult, and prematurely aging hearts. Our major scientific contributions are as follows: 1) Discovered that Parkin-mediated mitophagy underlies developmental cardiomyocyte mitochondrial plasticity and metabolic transitioning of perinatal hearts; 2) Demonstrated that mitochondrial quality control is critical to adult cardiac homeostasis; 3) Revealed that mitochondrial dynamism is indispensable in preventing mitochondrial senescence and premature cardiac aging.

Biography: 

Moshi Song, Ph.D., is a professor in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences since January 2018. She got her master’s degree at Karolinska Institute in 2011, received her Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis in 2015, and had postdoctoral trainings at Stanford University School of Medicine from 2016 to 2018.  She has primarily focused on the studies of the role of mitochondrial quality control in cardiac homeostasis. On the basis of her previous studies, she will continue to study the mitochondrial regulation of cardiac diseases and aging by combinatorially using mitochondrial functional analyses and multi-omics techniques, aiming to identify mitochondrial-related molecular markers for and therapeutic interventions against cardiac diseases and aging.  In the past 5 years, Dr. Song has published 29 scientific articles in journals including Science, Cell Metabolism, and Circulation Research.