Anne Katrine Johansen Email and Phone Number

Fibrosis is a clinical manifestation of dilative cardiomyopathy, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and ischemic heart disease and correlates with a poor prognosis. I lead several projects with the goal of furthering our understanding of the transcriptional regulation of fibroblast activation and differentiation. I am also undertaking experiments to understand how mechanosensing and immune cell interactions regulate fibroblast cell states.

Led the assessment of in vivo CRISPR-Cas9-based gene editing in the postnatal heart using AAV9-mediated delivery of short guide RNAs. Teamed up with Dr. Gladka to identify the gene profile of proliferating cardiomyocytes using single-cell RNA sequencing. Combinatorial overexpression of gene factors using AAV9 identified Thymosin β4 and prothymosin α as proteins that could promote cardiac regeneration.

Identified that estrogen metabolism by CYP1B1 promotes the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension