Kunzhe Dong

This study identifies MEIS1 as an activator of myocardin and vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation, showing its role in promoting the quiescent, differentiated state.

This study shows that loss of Leiomodin1 in vascular smooth muscle cells causes rapid coronary atherosclerosis in mice, independent of actin nucleation, and highlights Thbs1 as a target for mitigating foam cell formation.

This study identifies Treg destabilization as a staged differentiation process in atherosclerosis, leading to diverse exTreg states driven by IL-6R signaling.

This study shows that neddylation regulates mitochondrial dynamics and turnover in the adult heart, linking its disruption to cardiomyopathy and heart failure.

The paper develops a new Myh11-driven Cre mouse model for precise SMC-specific gene manipulation, avoiding issues of off-target activity and variable integration seen in existing models.

This study identifies PDGFD as a major gene underlying fat-tail selection in sheep using a global dataset and selection signature analysis.

The paper identifies CARMN as an evolutionarily conserved, smooth muscle cell-specific lncRNA, showing its down-regulation in vascular diseases and functional importance in maintaining the contractile phenotype of vascular smooth muscle cells.