Biochemistry & Pharmacology: Open Access
Open Access

Guo-Chang Fan

Biography

Dr. Fan received his PhD degree from Zhejiang University in 1998. He subsequently was trained at the Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine as postdoc. In 2000, he moved to the University of Cincinnati and involved in lupus study for one year, then switched to cardiovascular research. Dr. Fan was the first to show that Hsp20 has multiple roles in protection of hearts against several stress stimuli including ischemial reperfusion, doxorubicin, endotoxin, chronic exposure of isoproterenol, and hypoxia. In 2009, he was promoted to assistant professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Cell Biophysics, University of Cincinnati. Recently, his research team has elucidated the roles of extracellular Hsp20 in angiogenesis and microRNA in ischemic heart disease.

Research Interest

The research focuses in the Fan laboratory include: 1) MicroRNA regulation and response to heart attack and septic shock, 2) Intra-cellular and extra-cellular Hsp20 in cardiovascular disease and angiogenesis, and 3) Autophagy and exosomes in cardiovascular disease. The long-term goal of their study is to develop the therapeutic targets reagents for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Research approaches employed in the Fan lab are utilizing transgenic knockout animal models and gene-engineered cardiomyocytes stem cells to dissect the contribution of miRNAs Hsp20 autophagy exosomes to cardiac pathophysiology.