Medical Engineering Distinguished Seminar: Shu Chien

Flow patterns play important roles in regulating functions of endothelial cells (ECs) and predilection for atherosclerosis. Epigenetic factors (e.g. miRs and lncRNAs) can mediate the effects of flow patterns on ECs in vascular regulation. By combining temporal data on differentially expressed transcription factors, their targets, epigenetic modifiers and co-regulatory pathway analyses, we infer the relationships between gene regulators and endothelial functions differentially regulated by flow and elucidated their mechanisms of action. These findings provide novel insights with an integrated perspective into EC functional pathways in response to flow patterns, thus elucidating the mechanisms of epigenetic regulation of vascular function in health and disease.

Biography: Shu Chien received medical degree from National Taiwan University and Ph.D. in Physiology from Columbia. In 1988, he joined UCSD and founded Department of Bioengineering. He is Y.C. Fung Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine and Director of Institute of Engineering in Medicine. His research emphases are effects of mechanotransduction and genetic/epigenetic regulation in relation to atherogenesis.

He has served as Presidents of many scientific societies and has received many awards and honors. He is a member of all three U.S. National Academies (Engineering, Medicine, and Sciences) and also Academia Sinica, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Inventors. He received the National Medal of Science, which is the highest scientific honor in USA, from President Obama in 2011. https://iem.ucsd.edu/people/profiles/shu-chien.html