Description

Please join us as Dr. Joe Miano, Ph.D,  J. Harold Harrison, MD, Distinguished University Chair in Vascular Biology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University presents his work, "A New CREdo: Beware of Visceral Myopathies in Conditional “VSMC” Knockouts."   Abstract:  Conditional knockout mice can inform gene function in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). However, all popular SMC promoter-driven Cre mice display equivalent recombination activity in VSMCs and visceral SMCs of the gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts. Notably, 10% of the >400 conditionally inactivated floxed alleles studied in SMCs exhibit a gastrointestinal and/or urogenital tract phenotype and half of these phenotypes are lethal. Given the known cellular toxicity of Cre and the role of the gut microbiome in vascular disease, there is a need for more prudent control, evaluation, and interpretation of conditional knockouts in VSMCs. The recent development of a Cre driver with more restrictive activity in VSMCs has provided unprecedented (and unexpected) insights into gene function in VSMCs. This webinar will provide some history and practical pointers concerning conditional gene inactivation in VSMCs.

Please note this webinar will NOT be recorded.