Email

lilei.zhang@bcm.edu

Positions

Associate Professor

Molecular and Human Genetics
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US

Associate Professor

Internal Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine

Associate Professor

Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Baylor College of Medicine

Faculty Member

Genetics & Genomics Graduate Program
Baylor College of Medicine

Faculty Member

Development, Disease Models, & Therapeutics Graduate Program
Baylor College of Medicine

Addresses

BCM-MD Anderson Hall (Office)

Room: BCMA-441E
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Phone: (713) 798-2285

Education

MD from Peking University Health Science Center

07/2001 - Beijing, China

PhD from Johns Hopkins University

05/2006 - Baltimore, Maryland

Human Genetics and Molecular Biology

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University

05/2008 - Baltimore, Maryland

Internship at University Hospitals Case Medical Center

06/2009 - Cleveland, Ohio

Internal Medicine

Residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center

06/2012 - Cleveland, Ohio

Internal Medicine

Fellowship at University Hospital Case Medical Center

07/2013 - Cleveland, Ohio

Medical Genetics

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Case Western Reserve University

08/2016 - Cleveland, Ohio

Certifications

Texas Medical Board

Ohio Medical Board

American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics

American Board of Internal Medicine

Professional Interests

• Genetic and Epigenetic regulation of heart failure and cardiomyopathies
• Investigate the pathogenesis and treatment for inherited cardiac diseases using iPSC-CM model

Professional Statement

Our overarching mission is to translate the study of genetic and epigenetic regulation of cardiovascular disease into novel therapeutic approaches. One of our research focuses is circadian gene regulation in cardiac remodeling. Our work covers the entire circadian regulatory landscape, from the core clock to the slave clock, to the effectors. We discovered that core clock factor REV-ERB is protective for cardiac pathological remodeling and pharmacological activation of REV-ERB prevents heart failure progression even in late-stages. We recently expanded this finding to both HFrEF and HFpEF models and mechanistically demonstrated that REV-ERB suppressed aberrant gene expression, which is required for heart failure development and progression. This was the first example of treating heart failure by manipulating circadian machineries and shows great promise to complement current standard of care. Our finding is now being accelerated towards IND. We also established the very first cardiac slave clock, KLF15, which controls the circadian ischemia reperfusion injury in the heart via regulating NAD+.
Another focus of our laboratory is to study inherited cardiac diseases using induced pluripotent stem cell differentiated cardiomyocyte (iPSC-CM) model. We have recently demonstrated that folate can terminate otherwise lethal and recalcitrant arrhythmia in patients with TANGO2 deficiency disorder. This result corroborates what we have observed in large patient cohort and isolated case reports. Additionally, we use iPSC-CMs combined with genome editing, a battery of high throughput phenotyping and machine learning tools to answer human genetics questions in inherited cardiac diseases, including identifying novel disease genes, interpreting variants, understanding disease mechanisms, and testing novel therapeutic strategies.

Selected Publications

• Xu W, Cao Y, Stephens SB, Arredondo MJ, Chen Y, Perez W, Sun L, Yu AC, Kim JJ, Lalani SR, Li N, Horrigan FT, Altamirano F, Wehrens XH, Miyake CY, Zhang L "Folate as a potential treatment for lethal ventricular arrhythmias in TANGO2-deficiency disorder.." JCI Insight. 2024 Jun 10;9:e171005. Pubmed PMID: 38855866
• Miyake CY, Mackenzie SJ, Zhang L "Top Stories on arrhythmias in TANGO2 deficiency disorder." Heart Rhythm. 2024;21:707-709. Pubmed PMID: 38692818
• Xu W, Billon C, Li H, Wilderman A, Qi L, Graves A, Rideb JRDC, Zhao Y, Hayes M, Yu K, Losby M, Hampton CS, Adeyemi CM, Hong SJ, Nasiotis E, Fu C, Oh TG, Fan W, Downes M, Welch RD, Evans RM, Milosavljevic A, Walker JK, Jensen BC, Pei L, Burris T, Zhang L. "Novel Pan-ERR Agonists Ameliorate Heart Failure Through Enhancing Cardiac Fatty Acid Metabolism and Mitochondrial Function." Circulation. 2024 Nov 14;149(3):227-250. Pubmed PMID: 37961903
• Le Li , Hui Li , Chih-Liang Tien , Mukesh K. Jain , Lilei Zhang "Kruppel-Like Factor 15 Regulates the Circadian Susceptibility to Ischemia Reperfusion Injury in the Heart." Circulation. 2020 Apr 27;141(17):1427-1429. Pubmed PMID: 32339045