Dr. Hu, Yu-Feng
Joint Appointment Associate Research Fellow
- 02-27899135 (Lab)
- 02-26523500 (Office)
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Specialty:
1. Cardiac arrhythmias
2. Electrophysiology
3. Biological pacemakers
4. Artificial intelligence
Education and Positions:
MD. National Cheng-Kung University
Ph.D. National Yang-Ming University
Post-doctor fellow, Heart Institute, Cedar Sinai Medical Center, USA
Attending physician, Division of Cardiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
Highlight Detail
Biomaterial-induced conversion of quiescent cardiomyocytes into pacemaker cells in rats
Dr. Hu, Yu-Feng
Nature Biomedical Engineering , Nov 22, 2021
Pacemaker cells can be differentiated from stem cells or transdifferentiated from quiescent mature cardiac cells via genetic manipulation. Here we show that the exposure of rat quiescent ventricular cardiomyocytes to a silk-fibroin hydrogel activates the direct conversion of the quiescent cardiomyocytes to pacemaker cardiomyocytes by inducing the ectopic expression of the vascular endothelial cell-adhesion glycoprotein cadherin. The silk-fibroin-induced pacemaker cells exhibited functional and morphological features of genuine sinoatrial-node cardiomyocytes in vitro, and pacemaker cells generated via the injection of silk fibroin in the left ventricles of rats functioned as a surrogate in situ sinoatrial node. Biomaterials with suitable surface structure, mechanics and biochemistry could facilitate the scalable production of biological pacemakers for human use.