We are honored to have received the National Health Research Institutes-Innovative Research Grant to investigate the novel regulators of heart regeneration by comparative time-ordered gene coexpression network (TO-GCN) analysis! We work on this project in collaboration with Dr. Yao-Ming Chang at the Computational Medicine (CM) Core Lab/IBMS and Dr. Kai-Chien Yang at National Taiwan University/IBMS. Using the novel bioinformatic algorithm, we dissect the regulatory network of transcriptional factors (TFs) that only activate in regenerative zebrafish but not non-regenerative medaka during cardiac repair. With a focus on potential TFs triggering cardiomyocyte differentiation and proliferation, we identified a handful of novel candidates whose mutant fish failed to regenerate their hearts. Ongoing investigations focus on their cell-autonomous function in cardiomyocytes, functional conservation in mammalian models, and whether gain-of-function can accelerate cardiac repair.

https://pd.nhri.org.tw/112-newly-approved-grant-list/