On Wednesday 1st March we will be welcoming external speaker Dr Wei Li, Cambridge University, to the Vascular Science Seminar Series.
Details as follows:
Date: Wednesday 1st March
Time: 11 – 12pm (UK time)
Talk title: Targeting the Regulation of Endothelial BMP Signalling Complexes in Cardiovascular Disease
Location: Hybrid in person and online
Talk summary Dr Wei Li:
Bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9) and BMP10 are vascular quiescence factors, signalling potently in endothelial cells and impacting essential endothelial cell functions including proliferation, migration, apoptosis and permeability. Mutations in both ligands and their cell surface receptors ALK1 (ACVRL1), BMPR2 and co-receptor endoglin (ENG) are found in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), whereas mutations in ENG and ACVRL1 account for over 80% cases of hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), supporting a central role of this pathway in vascular homeostasis. There is a plethora of evidence from cell biological studies and animal models supporting its role in endothelial cell biology, yet the molecular details on how the components of the signalling complex are regulated and interact with each other are not well understood. In this seminar, I will illustrate how we use divide-and-conquer approach to dissect the molecular regulation of endothelial BMP signalling complex and apply such knowledge for drug discovery in cardiovascular diseases.
Bio:
Dr Wei Li is a BHF Senior Basic Science Research Fellow and a Principal Investigator at the Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge. She did her PhD degree in the field of protein engineering and protein-protein recognition, and postdoctoral research on thrombin inhibition by serine protease inhibitor (SERPINs) using structural biology. In 2010, she became a BHF lecturer and started working in the TGFb/BMP field. Alongside Prof Nick Morrell, she is a co-founder of Morphogen-IX, a Cambridge University spin-out company which is developing a novel PAH therapy using BMP9-based molecules.
A Vascular Science Seminar series site on MS Teams has been created for you to sign up to and join to be able to attend the seminars online if you cannot attend in person. To do so please click this link which will request access to the Team site and Seminar if you are not already a member.
Please do this ahead of the seminar talk.
VS Seminars Team