I am currently a Senior Research Fellow/Senior Lecturer at Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, FBMH, the University of Manchester. After I obtained my first degree in Medicine (2003) at Beijing University in China, curiosity on basic sciences research drove me to pursue PhD (2007) at Faculty of Life Sciences, the University of Manchester. Afterwards, I began my postdoctoral training to investigate the cell signalling regulatory mechanisms in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. In 2015, I was awarded British Heart Foundation (BHF) Intermediate Fellowship, and promoted to be a Senior Research Fellow/Senior Lecturer in FBMH in 2020. My research is focusing on the understanding of novel mechanisms and treatment strategies for metabolic disorders induced cardiovascular diseases.

The diabetes mellitus is growing rapidly, about 90% of them are type 2 diabetes (T2D), which increases the risk for cardiovascular diseases. The heart is not the organ playing a central role in the pathophysiology of T2D, however, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of diabetes related mortality. Although the causes of T2D associated heart diseases are multifactorial, extensive epidemiological studies suggest that diabetes mellitus can affect cardiac structure and function independent of vascular diseases or hypertension, termed diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) demonstrating significant impairment in cardiac metabolic flexibility. Abnormal usage of cardiac metabolic substrate (glucose and fatty acid) in diabetes leads to severe cardiac lipotoxicity, insulin resistance, ROS accumulation, and mitochondrial dysfunction, which contributes to cardiac dysfunction eventurally. However, the molecular mechanisms of metabolic responses and energy adaption are largely unknown.

The main research interest in my group is to elucidate the novel understandings of molecular mechanisms underlying adaption of cardiac energy to the changing metabolic environment  (including cell signalling pathways, endoplasmic reticulum stress involvement, pro-inflammatory cytokines stress, and epigenetic regulation, etc.). Additionally, we aim to explore the novel gene or pharmacological therapies and alternative remedies in disease conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart failure. For achieving this, I would like to create gene modified animal models using Flox/Cre system, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9) system, or adeno-associated virus (AAV) delivery. In addition, induced human pluripotent stem (iPS)-cardiomyocytes will be used for prospective drug screening and development for treatment of cardiovascular disease caused by metobolic disorders.

Diabetes is the world's fastest growing disease, creating a tremendous health care and financial burden. Even without hypertension and coronary diseases, obese and diabetes mellitus can directly damage heart structure and function, termed metabolic cardiomyopathy. Fatty acid and glucose are two main ‘fuel’ to support heart beating. Normal balance of their usage is maintained in healthy heart. However, the balance is impaired in metabolic cardiomyopathy, which increases the risk of heart failure. The molecular basis and treatment for metabolic cardiomyopathy are largely unknown. My lab will investigate the novel mechanism of cardiac metabolism maintenance in disease conditions, which supports to discover novel therapeutic.

Elizabeth.J.Cartwright

Ashraf Kitmitto

Sabu Abraham

Bernard Keavney 

Lisa Swanton

Gina Galli

Martin Rutter

Andy Trafford

Martin Pool

Kimberly Mace 

Alan Whitmarsh

Martin Lewe

gene modification techniques 

molecular biological methods

cardiac function studies

metabolic biochemistry

tissue or cell culture

PhD 2007 Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester

Bachelor 2003 Medical School, Beijing University

gene function, molecular mechanism, and treatment development of cardiovascular diseases. 

FBMH Senior Research Fellow/Senior Lecturer

Programme Deputy Director - MRes Cardiovascular Health & Disease

Postdocs:

Zhiyong Zou

Claire Ross

Andrea Ruiz

Binh Nguyen

Pablo Binder

PhD students:

Nasser hawimel o Alatawi 

Jiayan Zhang

Sanskruti Ravindra Gare  

Oveena Fonseka

Xinyi Chen

ER regulaiton of lipid homeostasis and protein quality in the heart (Rida Raja, 2024)

Molecular regulation of inflamation in the heart in diabetes (Namrita Kaur, 2022)

The role of mkk7 in the heart (Tayyiba Azam, 2022)

The role of cardiac Pak2 in ischemic heart (Lucy Collins, 2021)

ERK5 as a metabolic regulator in the heart (Andrea Ruiz Velasco Hernandez, 2019)

The cardioprotective role of PRCR in the heart (Binh Nguyen, 2019)

Master students:

Rida Raja (2019) (MRes)

Tayyiba Azam (2019) (MRes)

Chloe Darragh-Hickey (2019)

John-Michael Emmonds (2020) (MRes)

Aroon Sohail (2020) (MRes)

Iwan Roberts (2020)

Yingshu Guan (2021) (MRes)

Rafia Noor (2021) (MRes)

Yueting Yu (2021)

Sanskruti Ravindra Gare (2022) (MRes)

Haresh Ganenthiran (2022) (MRes)

Nasser hawimel o Alatawi (2022)

Niha Gohel (2023)

Jiahan Shen (2023) (Mphil)

Henrietta Morrell-Davies (2024)