Sam Das Nucleus-to-Mitochondrial communication through microRNA during Obesity

Samarjit (Sam) Das is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His laboratory works extensively on the functional aspects of non-coding RNA in health and disease. The laboratory is working on both basic science research, such as determining the molecular mechanisms by which a non-coding RNA can alter cellular function, as well as translational research such as identifying non-coding RNAs as early diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers for a specific disease. This talk should provide insights into the mechanistic basis of obesity/diabetes induced cardiac dysfunction by a novel subset of miRNA that translocate the mitochondrial compartment of the cardiomyocytes and causes mitochondrial injury that ultimately leads to cardiomyocyte death. The subject focus on the functional aspects of miRNA-mediated post-translational mechanisms that regulate cardiac function. We are also actively working on different disease models, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity and aging, and studying the physiological effects of perturbations in miRNA expression. We are currently studying miR-181c, which we were the first to show is encoded for in the nucleus, matures in the cytoplasm, and translocates into the mitochondrial compartment of cardiomyocytes. The importance of mitochondrial miRNA is still being investigated, and the field is in its infancy, but there is promising data to suggest that these miRNAs could lead to new therapeutic approaches for chronic heart diseases.