ATSUSHI NAKANO, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology

Atsushi (Austin) Nakano is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology and the Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA. Austin earned his MD and PhD at Kyoto University, and had clinical training as a cardiologist. As a research fellow with Dr. Kenneth R. Chien at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Stem Cell Institute, he examined the multipotency of cardiac progenitors using the cardiac mesenchymal feeder system that he established. While great progress has been made in the field of cardiac developmental biology, the stem cell biology of the heart has remained at a relatively primitive stage. Critical questions that need to be answered are: (1) How the commitment and diversification of the cardiac cells are regulated at each level of cardiogenesis? (2) How plastic are the cardiac progenitors and what is the biological significance of this plasticity during cardiac morphogenesis and disease development? (3) What are the molecular mechanisms that make adult cardiomyocytes terminally differentiated and unable to divide? Using both unique approaches and established techniques of ES cells, iPS cells and mouse genetics, Dr. Nakano hopes to answer these questions in the developmental and stem cell biology of the heart that will lead to the development of future therapeutic advances.