Edward Lau Lab

About

We are a laboratory in the University of Colorado Department of Medicine Division of Cardiology.

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Research Interests

Our laboratory uses genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics approaches to understand basic cellular processes in human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models. Human iPSCs can be directed to differentiate into different types of cells in the body including heart, muscle, and vascular cells, therefore providing a powerful in vitro model to probe cell biology under different developmental and stress response scenarios. Currently we are working on two projects in the areas of cellular communication and protein homeostasis:

How do cells in the body communicate through secreted RNAs and proteins?
In recent work, we have mapped secreted non-coding RNAs from multiple cell types derived from human iPSCs (cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts) that may function in intercellular communications and that may be harnessed as a quantitative metric to assess the differentiation status and purity of hPSC-derived cardiac cells. Future work will develop this approach to model longitudinal changes in cellular communication networks under stress and disease using computational, single-cell, and proteomics strategies.
What is the role of protein synthesis and homeostasis during cell fate transitions?
In the past few years we have developed analytical and computational methods to measure the individual half-life of thousands of protein species in complex systems. We discovered widespread changes in protein synthesis and degradation rates in animal models that to discover new disease signatures. Going forward, we are planning to apply our tools to identify the protein quality control factors that are important for cellular differentiation in iPSC systems as well as during transitions from stress to cellular senescence.

Work in the laboratory is funded by a federal NIH/NHLBI R00 award as well as institutional funding from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Consortium for Fibrosis Research & Translation. We have fully funded positions available. Inquire if you are interested in joining our team!

Members

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Edward Lau, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

Edward is an Assistant Professor at University of Colorado School of Medicine (Medicine/Cardiology), and a faculty member of the Integrated Physiology (IPHY) and the Cell Biology, Stem Cell, and Development (CSD) graduate programs. Edward received his BSc degree in Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, his PhD in molecular physiology at UCLA, and completed his postdoctoral training in stem cell biology at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute prior to joining CU.

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Lauren Li, M.Sc.

Research Staff

Lauren is a professional research assistant at University of Colorado in the Lau Lab. She is a Colorado native and received her bachelor and master degrees in Biological Sciences at the University of Denver.

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Nicholas Hulett, M.Sc.

Graduate Student

Nicholas is a PhD student in the CU SOM Integrated Physiology program rotating with us in Spring 2021. He received his MSc degree in exercise physiology at the Colorado State University.

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