Dr. Wei Guo was recently promoted to Associate Professor (Tenured) in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences. His laboratory investigates how post-transcriptional regulation and RNA metabolism shape the structure and function of striated muscle (cardiac and skeletal). A central goal of the Guo Lab is to develop innovative RNA-based therapeutic strategies to improve human health and enhance animal production efficiency.

The lab was recently awarded the WARF/Route 66 Ventures Cardiology Challenge Grant to pursue titin-targeted approaches for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)—a prevalent condition with limited disease-modifying therapies. By focusing on titin, the largest known vertebrate protein, the project aims to deliver a transformative treatment for HFpEF, which affects more than 3 million people in the United States. Read more: https://www.warf.org/news/three-projects-selected-for-warf-route-66-ventures-cardiology-challenge-grant/

Additionally, Dr. Guo received an Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) Pilot Program Award, co-sponsored by the UW–Madison Biotechnology Center and ONT. This project will use targeted long-read RNA sequencing on human myocardial biopsies from HFpEF patients, with healthy donor hearts as controls, to define titin (TTN) splicing profiles. The work is in collaboration with physician–scientist Dr. Farhan Raza in the Department of Medicine, UW–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

This article was posted in News, Program Features.