Speaker: Leonela Amoasii, PhD from UT Southwestern
Topic: Restoration of Muscle and Heart by Genome Editing in Muscular Dystrophy
Originally from a small Eastern European country, Moldova, Dr. Amoasii pursued her undergraduate and graduate studies in France at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg. During her doctoral studies with Dr. Jocelyn Laporte at the “Institut de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire” (IGBMC), she worked on myotubular centronuclear myopathy. For Dr. Amoasii's postdoctoral training she moved to Dallas, Texas to work with Dr. Eric Olson, where she has pursued her interest in skeletal muscle function and disease.
During her first years in the Olson lab, she investigated the roles of Mediator subunits in the regulation of skeletal muscle metabolism. In parallel, she worked on the application of CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing technology for the correction of mutations responsible for muscular dystrophy. Dr. Amoasii's long-term career goal is to conduct research as an independent principle investigator at an academic university. Her scientific interests are focused on studying gene regulatory networks of muscle function and on applying new gene-editing techniques for correction of muscle diseases.
Sarver Heart Center
Room 4137