"Researchers identify gene linked to development of a critical coronary artery"

Sara Zaske, Stanford Senior Science Writer, published an article covering Kristy Red-Horse and Tim Assimes’ recent co-senior publishing in Cell.

“Most people have right-dominant hearts—which to a doctor or a researcher means they have an artery that extends from the right side of their hearts to supply oxygenated blood to the back side. For some people, this artery, called the posterior descending artery, comes from the left side or from both directions. A study has found that the gene CXCL12 is connected to this artery’s formation and that its directional pattern is set very early in human development. The findings, reported in the journal Cell, represent a step toward developing “medical revascularization,” a long-term goal of Stanford researchers to create a treatment for blocked or limited-flow arteries by growing new ones to compensate.”

For the full article, please visit: Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences’ Featured News


Congrats on the Cover of Cell, Pam and Mira!

Pam Rios and Mira Moufarrej land on the latest cover of Cell with a gorgeous image of an optically cleared heart for light-sheet microscopy!

“CXCL12 drives natural variation in coronary artery anatomy across diverse populations” Summary:

“Coronary arteries have a specific branching pattern crucial for oxygenating heart muscle. Among humans, there is natural variation in coronary anatomy with respect to perfusion of the inferior/posterior left heart, which can branch from either the right arterial tree, the left, or both—a phenotype known as coronary dominance. Using angiographic data for >60,000 US veterans of diverse ancestry, we conducted a genome-wide association study of coronary dominance, revealing moderate heritability and identifying ten significant loci. The strongest association occurred near CXCL12 in both European- and African-ancestry cohorts, with downstream analyses implicating effects on CXCL12 expression. We show that CXCL12 is expressed in human fetal hearts at the time dominance is established. Reducing Cxcl12 in mice altered coronary dominance and caused septal arteries to develop away from Cxcl12 expression domains. These findings indicate that CXCL12 patterns human coronary arteries, paving the way for “medical revascularization” through targeting developmental pathways.”

For the full paper, please visit: Cell

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Congrats on your first publication, Lauren!

Lauren Reyes (Stanford ‘25) published a reflective entry in Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.

The work, My Body, Your Body, details Lauren’s profound experience in a cadaver lab, highlighting the contrast between the initial reverence for a donor's life and the subsequent objectification of their body in a clinical setting. She reflects on the depersonalization inherent in referring to a body as "The Body," contrasting this with the Navajo language, which emphasizes personal connection by assigning ownership to body parts.

For the full text, please visit: My Body, Your Body

The Red-Horse Lab attends NAVBO 2024!

Several of our lab members presented posters and gave amazing talks at this year’s North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO) conference at Asilomar on the Monterey Peninsula, CA!

This year’s conference “[featured] several themes that are relevant to the vascular biology community: development and genetics, inflammation, malformations, matrix biology and bioengineering, mechanotransduction, microcirculation, and signaling.”

Check out a few highlights below:

Lauren R. receiving a poster award

Mira M. concluding her talk

James Z. starting his talk

Lauren R. opening her talk

Sawan J. with his poster

 

Alanna P. with her poster

Donna P. with her poster

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Congrats to Mentor and Mentee!

Mia Girela (CVI Summer Program ‘24) presented her summer work at the Stanford-Arizona-Morehouse-UAB Cardiovascular Research Symposium. She was mentored by Azalia M. Jaimes during the 10-week summer program “designed to provide meaningful research experiences to a diverse cohort of undergraduate and medical students from across the country in the field of cardiovascular science.”

For more information on CVI, please visit: Stanford’s Cardiovascular Institute

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Azalia receives prestigious HHMI Gilliam Fellowship!

Congratulations to Azalia Martinez Jaimes (Developmental Biology) and Kristy Red-Horse, PhD (Biology) on being named one of the student-adviser pairs for the 2024 Gilliam Fellows Program!


This year, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) named 50 awardees from 43 academic institutes across the country in the largest competition in the program’s history:

“This marks the 19th year of the Gilliam Fellows Program competition and the first cohort to be named since the program transitioned from a nomination-based competition to a fully open competition. This transition helped increase the total number of program applications, leading to first-time Gilliam Fellows awards in Hawai’i, Montana, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington, DC.  All told, the Gilliam Fellows Program received applications from a record-breaking 162 different institutions. With the addition of the 2024 cohort, the Gilliam community now totals 501 scientists, including those who have graduated from the program.” - HHMI

For more information, visit the official Gilliam Day announcement.

James receives the 2024 NSF Fellowship!

The Biology department announced the 2024 NSF Fellowship recipients, and we are proud to congratulate James Zwierzynski (Year-1) on being one of five students who received this award!

From the Biology department: We are excited to update you that the 2024 NSF fellowship recipients have been announced and once again Biology PhD students took several top honors! Please join us in congratulating these current and recently admitted Biology students for receiving NSF fellowships:
Current Students

  • Hannah Clayton, Year 2, Goldbogen lab

  • Nim Robles, Year 1, Schumer lab

  • Cesar Mena, Year 1

  • James Zwierzynski, Year 1, Red-Horse lab

    Honorable Mentions:
    Also, congratulations to current students Sabrina Daley, Bri Johnson, Abu Sangare, and Max Madrzyk for receiving Honorable Mention!

Incoming Student

  • Jordan Kalai, Incoming student, CMOB

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Excited to host Dr. Charla Lambert!

The Stanford Biology DEIB Committee will be hosting Dr. Charla Lambert (President of SACNAS and DEI Officer at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) for special events October 2nd and 3rd!

  • Monday, October 2, 2023:

    • Trainee lunch with Dr. Lambert, 12-1:30 PM, Bass Courtyard

    • Dr. Lambert’s Seminar, 4 PM, Clark Auditorium

  • Tuesday, October 3, 2023:

    • A day with Dr. Charla Lambert, 9 AM-1 PM at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve

    • Community Mixer, 4-6 PM, Bass Courtyard

For more information on Dr. Lambert’s work, please visit:
Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory Office of DEI

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QuantaMagazine Q&A Article with Kristy!

Kristy was recently highlighted in QuantaMagazine in a Q&A piece by Claudia Dreifus, titled “She Studies Growing Arteries to Aid Heart Attack Recovery”

“Kristy Red-Horse, an associate professor of biology at Stanford University and a member of the school’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, has become a leader in the pursuit of that understanding. She has published groundbreaking studies on the origins of blood vessels in the hearts of mammals. The hope is that what she and her colleagues have learned about the growth of those vessels during fetal development could help rescue the heart after a heart attack.”

To read the article, please visit: Kristy on QuantaMagazine

Congrats on being awarded the CVI Manuscript Award, Pam!

Pam was awarded the CVI Manuscript Award for her 2022-published paper titled “Blood Flow Modeling Reveals Improved Collateral Artery Performance During the Regenerative Period in Mammalian Hearts” published in “Nature Cardiovascular Research”.

For access to the paper, please visit: Nature Cardiovascular Research

Cover of Nature Cardiovascular Research Vol.1 No.8
Image: Suhaas Anbazhakan and Pamela E. Rios Coronado. Cover Design: Bethany Vukomanovic

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