Jop van Berlo, M.D., Ph.D.

After obtaining his M.D and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, Jop van Berlo (jvanberl@umn.edu) performed postdoctoral research with Dr. Jeffery Molkentin at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. There he initiated a research program focused on cardiac regeneration, which he further developed upon joining the University of Minnesota in 2013. His main interests are to identify the most important cell types in the heart that can contribute cardiomyocytes to the adult heart after injury. This research has two main goals that are identifying the molecular regulators of cardiomyocyte proliferation and determining the most potent cardiac progenitor cell. He has performed a high throughput, high-content screen to identify novel regulators of cardiomyocyte proliferation. This project is currently funded by Regenerative Medicine Minnesota and by the Hardwell Foundation. The goal is to identify the most potent regulators of cardiomyocyte proliferation, validate these in human iPS derived cardiomyocytes and study their role/expression in human pathologies. The second project uses these mouse models that allow tracking the daughter cells of cardiac progenitor cells in the adult heart. Dr. van Berlo’s lab uses these mouse models to study which progenitor cells contribute endothelial cells, cardiomyocytes and other cell types to the adult heart, and in response to injury. They are studying the expression patterns at single cell levels of these progenitor cells to identify the regulators of cardiomyocyte fate with the goal of enhancing cardiac regeneration. This work is currently funded by an R01 from the National Institutes of Health.

Representative publications include:

  • Shaklee J, Srivastava K, Brown H, Arriaga EA, Pierre VC, van Berlo JH. Development of a Click-Chemistry Reagent Compatible with Mass Cytometry. Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 27;8(1):6657. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-25000-y.
  • Chen Z, Zhu W, Bender I, Gong W, Kwak IY, Yellamilli A, Hodges TJ, Nemoto N, Zhang J, Garry DJ, van Berlo JH. Pathologic Stimulus Determines Lineage Commitment of Cardiac C-kit+ Cells. Circulation. 2017 Dec 12;136(24):2359-2372. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.030137. Epub 2017 Oct 11.
  • Yellamilli A, van Berlo JH. The Role of Cardiac Side Population Cells in Cardiac Regeneration. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2016 Sep 13.
  • van Berlo JH, Molkentin JD. An Emerging Consensus on Cardiac Regeneration. Nat Med. 2014 Dec;20(12):1386-93.

Research projects available with Dr. van Berlo include the following:

  • Determine expression levels of novel regulators of cardiomyocyte proliferation in patient samples
  • Define the molecular signature of cardiomyocyte progenitors
  • Unravel the molecular mode of action of regulators of cardiomyocyte proliferation
  • Assess lineage contribution of cardiac progenitor cells
  • Define the factors that determine cardiomyocyte vs endothelial cell differentiation