The University of Cincinnati is receiving a $243,000 Project Grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837). The grant, awarded on January 1, 2025 and running through December 31, 2026, will support research to develop innovative RNA biodevices that integrate CRISPR and ADAR technologies. The goal is to improve the efficiency and specificity of converting fibroblasts into cardiac cells for in vivo reprogramming strategies to treat myocardial infarction-induced cardiovascular diseases and excessive fibrosis. The research will address challenges related to low conversion efficiency and lack of fibroblast-specific targeting in current in vivo reprogramming approaches. The proposed work aims to engineer novel RNA scaffolds to boost activation of cardiogenic genes and overcome reprogramming obstacles through CRISPR-based epigenetic editing. Additionally, an ADAR-based system will be developed to precisely recognize and manipulate fibroblast-specific RNAs. This exploratory study will validate the use of advanced gene-editing techniques to enhance fibroblast cell fate reprogramming for more effective cardiac regeneration therapies.
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