Ziqing Liu Laboratory Receives a NIH NHLBI R01 Grant

Congratulations to Dr. Ziqing Liu and her entire laboratory staff on the receipt of a NIH NHLBI R01 entitled "Post-transcriptional regulation of vascular homeostasis by RNA-binding proteins." The grant, which started on August 1, 2025, will provide $3,024,116 over five years.

In this proposal, Dr. Liu and her team aim to identify key regulators of vascular homeostasis and understand how they maintain normal vascular function with a particular focus on RNA-binding proteins (RBP). Based on in silico and in vitro loss-of-function screen, they identified Poly-A binding protein cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1) as a potential key regulator of vascular homeostasis. Preliminary data from endothelial-specific knockout mice of Pabpc1 suggest an essential role of Pabpc1 in maintaining vascular homeostasis through suppression of inflammation. The proposal will address whether the PABPC1-ZFP36-CXCL1 axis is a potential drug target to confer resilience to the vasculature and prevent age-related diseases.

Congratulations on this well-deserved research grant.