Please JOIN US for the Physiology Seminar Series Thursday, March 13th @ 3:30-5:00 PM in the CRB Auditorium.
[PDF flyer link]
The Department of Physiology is pleased to announce:
Dr. Joseph B. Moore, IV, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Center for Cardiometabolic Science
University of Louisville School of Medicine
will be presenting his seminar
“The ARCHITECTURE of RECOVERY:
CCN1’s Role in Collagen Structure and Matrix Integrity After Myocardial Infarction”
Thursday, MARCH 13, 2025 – 3:30-5:00 PM
Cancer Research Building Auditorium, Room 114
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Hosted by Dr. Junwang Xu
Refreshments will be provided. Please see attached flyer for more details.
Faculty profile link: https://louisville.edu/medicine/departments/medicine/divisions/environmental-medicine/faculty/moore-joseph
Introduction
Dr. Joseph B. Moore IV is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Louisville, where he leads research in the Center for Cardiometabolic Science. His work focuses on understanding the fundamental biology of the cardiac extracellular matrix (ECM) and its complex role in cardiovascular health and disease. The ECM not only supports the heart’s three-dimensional structure and organizes its diverse cellular components but also serves as a critical signaling hub, enabling dynamic communication between the cardiac stroma and parenchyma. Despite its pivotal role, much remains unknown about how this communication influences cardiac development and disease processes. Dr. Moore’s lab aims to uncover new ECM-mediated biological processes, map the signaling networks involved in cardiac development, stress responses, and heart failure, and study how ECM structural changes impact cardiac function. Ultimately, the lab seeks to identify ECM-centered processes that could be targeted for therapeutic intervention in heart failure, offering the potential to reshape treatment approaches and improve patient outcomes.
Dr. Moore’s research includes several key areas:
- Unraveling the Role of ECM in Cardiovascular Cell Communication and Heart Health: Investigating how the cardiac ECM facilitates communication between cardiovascular cells and its role in shaping heart function and resilience, with a focus on conditions such as aging, ischemic and non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, and fibrosis.
- Transforming Cardiac Structure and Function Through ECM Composition and Architecture: Analyzing how alterations in ECM composition and architecture—such as non-fibrillar collagens and matricellular proteins—affect cardiac structure, tissue mechanics, and cardiovascular cell behavior.
- Targeting ECM Dynamics for Cardiac Repair and Regeneration: Developing novel ECM-centered therapies aimed at improving cardiac repair and regeneration by modulating fibroblast activation and enhancing cardiomyocyte recovery, ultimately aiming to improve outcomes for patients with heart failure.
Dr. Moore earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Louisville and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pediatric Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. He is a Technical Editor for Circulation Research and serves as a standing member of the Basic Biology of Blood, Heart, and Vasculature (BBHV) NIH Study Section. Through his work, Dr. Moore aims to bridge fundamental ECM biology with clinical therapies, advancing the treatment of heart disease.
Seminar Summary
This presentation will discuss the pivotal role of fibrosis in predicting adverse cardiac outcomes in heart failure, emphasizing the importance of matrix architectural changes beyond simple collagen accumulation. It explores the involvement of adhesive matricellular proteins, particularly CCN1 (Cellular Communication Network protein 1), in mediating complex interactions between cardiac fibroblasts and the collagen matrix, driving fibroblast-led remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI). Our findings underscore CCN1’s critical contribution to scar formation, ensuring the precise arrangement of collagen that stabilizes the scar during maturation. While CCN1 regulates collagen structure adaptively in the early stages, prolonged expression may induce an anisotropic conformation with reduced compliance in non-infarct regions. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving fibrosis and its long-term implications for cardiac health.
NOTE: there will be NO Seminar next week 3/20 due to Spring Break.
Please email hsimmers@uthsc.edu if you would like to be added to our seminar announcements email list.