Heart and muscle development and disease, iPSC-based disease modeling, cell and gene therapies.

Research focused on understanding the mechanisms of heart & muscle development and disease by deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate differentiation, specification, and pathogenesis, with a specific focus on studying the main concepts of embryology and how undifferentiated cells interpret signals from extra-cellular stimuli and undergo differentiation to somatic linages. Combining genomic approaches with high content imaging platforms to study multicellular events in complex tissue at a single-cell resolution, while using pluripotent stem cells and mice as primary model systems to establish disease models for in vitro/vivo validation of targeted compounds and cell-based therapies.Specialties: Cell therapy, gene therapy, gene-editing, heart development and disease, cancer biology, genetic and molecular diagnostics, drug discovery, pharmacology, pluripotent stem cells and 3D cell engineering.Publications, patents, funding history: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3971-0467

Standardization and manufacturing of high quality Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from patients for disease modeling and drug discovery

Founding member of the Johns Hopkins Biotech Investment Group

JHU Stem Cell Consortium is a collaborative network of scientific researchers in the field of stem cell biology and cell engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Engineering cell-based therapies

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Publications:1. Chelko SP, Asimaki A, Andersen P., et al. Central role for GSK3β in the pathogenesis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.2. Morita Y, Andersen P., et al. Sall1 transiently marks undifferentiated heart precursors and regulates their fate. 2016, J Mol Cell Cardiol.3. Andersen P & Kwon C. Ex Vivo Culture of Pharyngeal Arches to Study Heart and Muscle Progenitors and Their Niche, 2015, J. Vis Exp.4. Shenje L & Andersen P., et al, Precardiac deletion of Numb and Numblike reveals renewal of cardiac progenitors. 2014, eLife.5. Shenje L & Andersen P., et al. Mutations in Alström protein impair terminal differentiation of cardiomyocytes. 2014, Nature Communications.6. Uosaki H & Andersen P., et al. Direct contact with endoderm-like cells efficiently induces cardiac progenitors from mouse and human pluripotent stem cells. 2012, Plos One.7. Andersen et al., Non-canonical Notch signaling: emerging role and mechanism. 2012, Trends in Cell Biology.

Heart development and diseasePublications:1. Cheng P & Andersen P., et al. Fibronectin mediates mesendodermal cell fate decisions. 2013, Development.2. Kwon C, Cheng P, King IN, Andersen P, et al. Notch Post-Translationally Regulates b-Catenin Protein in Stem and Progenitor Cells. 2011, Nature Cell Biology.

Cardiac development and regenerative stem cell therapy. Thesis entitled: Induction and characterization of cardiac progenitors.Publications: 1. Andersen P., et al. Shaping the Herat in Development and Disease; MicroRNA in heart development and disease. 2010, Research Signpost.2. Andersen D & Andersen P., et al. Murine "cardiospheres" are not a source of stem cells with cardiomyogenic potential. 2009, Stem Cells.

Research with focus on signal transduction downstream of EGFR/EGFRvIII in human cancer, and modulation of gene therapy particles for treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC).1. Andersen P., et al. Improved response by co-targeting EGFR/EGFRvIII and Src family kinases in human cancer cells. 2009, Cancer Investigation.2. Andersen P., et al. EGFR induces expression of IRF-1 via STAT1 and STAT3 activation leading to growth arrest of human cancer cells. 2008, International Journal of Cancer.3. Zandi R., et al. Mechanisms for oncogenic activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor. 2007, Cell Signalling

Master studies: Masters Thesis entitled: ’Role of the tumor suppressor IRF-1 activated by the epidermal growth factor receptor in human cancer cells’

Biotech startup