Jie Na, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine,School of Medicine,
Tsinghua University
jie.na@tsinghua.edu.cn
Biography:
Dr Jie Na’s research fields are stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, and early mammalian embryo development. The main research emphasis are:
1.The molecular mechanism of human pluripotent stem cells differentiation to cardiovascular and blood lineage tissues including cardiomyocytes, blood vessel cells and immune cells. we also carry out translational research, aiming to use cell and gene therapy to treat ischemic diseases.
2.Investigate early mammalian embryo development and human diseases using stem cells generated organoids, explore their application in drug testing and precision medicine.
3.Cardiovascular tissue engineering and 3D bioprinting.
Professional Associations and Awards
Dr Jie Na is the principal Investigator of several National Natural Science Foundation project grant, and the National Key R&D Program of China. Dr Jie Na published 37 papers including ones on Nature, Science, Cell Stem Cell, with more than 1400 citations. Dr Jie Na is the member of International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), committee member of Chinese Society of Reproductive Biology, member of Chinese society of Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Physiology and Pathophysiology.
Selective Publications
1.Jing Zhang, ..., and Jie Na*. Anti-apoptotic mutations desensitise human pluripotent stem cells to mitotic stress and enable aneuploid cell survival. (2019) Stem Cell Reports. 129(3):557-571.
2.Hong Li, ..., Jie Na*, Changyong Wang*, and Jin Zhou*. Spaceflight Promoted Myocardial Differentiation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells – Results from Tianzhou-1 Mission. (2019) Stem Cells and Development. 28(6):357-360.
3.Jingyi Wu, ..., Jie Na*, Wei Xie* and Yingpu Sun*. Chromatin analysis in human early development reveals epigenetic transition during ZGA. (2018) Nature, 557:256-260.
4.Fuyu Duan, ..., Jie Na*. Biphasic modulation of insulin signaling enables highly efficient hematopoietic differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells. (2018) Stem Cell Research & Therapy. 9(1):205.
5.Bingjie Zhang, ..., Jie Na* and Wei Xie*. Allelic reprogramming of the histone modification H3K4me3 in early mammalian development. (2017) Nature, 537:553-557
Topic title: Manufacture synthetic embryos with stem cells
Abstract: Synthetic embryos formed by cultured pluripotent and extraembryonic lineage stem cells emerge as a novel and convenient system to study mammalian early postimplantation embryo development in vitro. Here, we assembled the mouse gastrula embryo-like structure using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We showed that compared to mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), when co-cultured with extra-embryonic trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) and extraembryonic endoderm stem cells (XEN cells), iPSCs have reduced ability to form correct gastrula embryo-like structures, namely ITS and ITX embryos. Despite that, some ITS and ITX embryos underwent lumenogenesis, developed basement membrane, and initiated anterior-posterior axis as natural postimplantation embryos. We performed a high-content screen of small molecules and cytokines and identified candidate factors best promoted the correct morphogenesis of ITS embryos. Transcriptome profiling revealed that the candidate factor significantly upregulated gene networks regulating cell polarity, gastrulation and chromatin modification in iPSCs, while it promoted the proliferation and energy metabolism in TSCs. Our study established a new strategy to increase the efficiency and to uncover the new mechanism that can improve stem cells’ potential to form correct embryo-like structures in vitro.