Charles Hong, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Phone: 615-936-7032
Fax:
Email: charles.c.hong@vanderbilt.edu

Affiliations

Our research is focused on studying vertebrate development using chemical genetic approaches, in a manner analogous to the classic developmental genetic analysis. Using high-throughput chemical screens in intact zebrafish, we identify small molecules that perturb development or reverse zebrafish models of human diseases. The small molecules are then used as probes to dissect such processes as artery-vein fate specification, heart development, hematopoiesis, developmental timing, metabolic regulation and embryonic dorsoventral axis formation. Since some of these compounds will function by promoting development of specific cell and tissue types, an important goal of our research is to develop chemical tools for stem cell research and cell-based therapeutics. Using this interdisciplinary approach, we have thus far identified potent and exquisitely selective chemical modifiers of BMP, Wnt/B-catenin and Hedgehog pathways. Finally, given significant therapeutic potential of some of these compounds, we are evaluating them as lead compounds for treatment of specific human diseases.

Publications

PubMedID	Citation
19347615	Hong CC. Large-scale small-molecule screen using zebrafish embryos. () Methods Mol Biol 486: 43-55
19029982	Yu PB, Deng DY, Lai CS, Hong CC, Cuny GD, Bouxsein ML, Hong DW, McManus PM, Katagiri T, Sachidanandan C, Kamiya N, Fukuda T, Mishina Y, Peterson RT, Bloch KD. BMP type I receptor inhibition reduces heterotopic [corrected] ossification. (2008) Nat Med 14: 1363-9
18796644	Hong CC, Kume T, Peterson RT. Role of crosstalk between phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways in artery-vein specification. () Circ Res 103: 573-9
18682835	Hao J, Daleo MA, Murphy CK, Yu PB, Ho JN, Hu J, Peterson RT, Hatzopoulos AK, Hong CC. Dorsomorphin, a selective small molecule inhibitor of BMP signaling, promotes cardiomyogenesis in embryonic stem cells. (2008) PLoS One 3: e2904
18042551	Yu PB, Deng DY, Beppu H, Hong CC, Lai C, Hoyng SA, Kawai N, Bloch KD. Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type II receptor is required for BMP-mediated growth arrest and differentiation in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. (2007) J Biol Chem 283: 3877-88