Yifei Miao, MBBS, PhD

As many as one in 100 children face cardiovascular problems, such as heart chamber defect or valvular underdevelopment. These heart problems often develop in the first few days or weeks after birth.

I’ve been interested in cardiovascular disease investigations since I was a student in medical school. My research interests include congenital heart defect and vasculature disease. I also study pulmonary arterial hypertension and other congenital pulmonary diseases.

In my research lab, my team and I attempt to identify the vasculature irregularities in congenital diseases, including single ventricle disease, valve disease and pulmonary hypertension. We do this by generating multiple cardiac cell types and organoids from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

One of my notable discoveries includes a novel long non-coding RNA, LEENE, that controls the homeostasis of endothelial cells via chromatin remodeling. In the early years of my research, I demonstrated how nuclear receptors contribute to brown adipocyte metabolism and energy expenditure. I’ve also recently discovered endocardial dysfunctions underlying hypoplastic left heart syndrome through iPSCs platform and single cell sequencing technology.

I have more than ten years of experience in the cardiovascular research field and joined the team at Division of Neonatology and CuSTOM stem cell research center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in 2020. My research has been published in prestigious journals, such as Cell Stem Cell, Circulation, Nature Communications, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.