Daniel Garry Lab
Dan’s laboratory has a long-standing interest in regenerative and stem cell biology with a focus on the heart and skeletal muscle. In their studies of the heart and skeletal muscle, the Garry laboratory utilizes an array of technologies including gene disruption strategies, transgenesis, single cell genome analysis, gene editing (TALEN and CRISPR technologies), inducible ES/EB model systems, hiPSC technologies, FACS and other cellular, biochemical and molecular biological techniques.
In addition, their use of lower organisms such as zebrafish and newt, which are highly regenerative model systems have successfully uncovered critical regenerative factors. Human iPSCs are another important model for cardiovascular disease investigation for the lab. Using these technologies, the Garry lab was among the first to discover the molecular markers of stem cell populations that regulate critical networks during heart and skeletal muscle development and regeneration. For example, their studies have uncovered novel Ets and Forkhead transcription factors, microRNAs and signaling pathways that direct fate determination of stem cell populations. The manipulation of these pathways using chemical genetics and molecular technologies has provided a platform focused on rebuilding and repairing the injured heart and skeletal muscle.
Regulatory Mechanisms of Endothelial Development and Regeneration
The overall goal of this project is to define the regulatory cascades that govern stem cells and progenitors to promote cardiovascular regeneration.
Transcriptional Regulation of Cardiac Progenitors
(AHA DeHaan Cardiac Myogenesis Award)
This project is part of the University of Minnesota AHA-Jon Holden DeHaan Cardiac Myogenesis Research Center: Moving myogenesis from molecules to man. The major objectives of this project are the focus on Nkx2-5 transcriptional networks and the definition of signaling pathways that promote a cardiomyocyte fate using hiPSC and adult cardiac progenitors.
Full list of publications at Experts@Minnesota.
- Garry DJ, Das S, Gong W. Decoding DMD transcriptional networks using single-nucleus RNA sequencing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Dec 2;117(51):32192–4. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2022205117. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33268493; PMCID: PMC7768731.
- Garry DJ, Maeng G, Garry MG. Foxk1 regulates cancer progression. Ann Transl Med. 2020 Sep;8(17):1041. doi: 10.21037/atm-2020-94. PMID: 33145260; PMCID: PMC7575999.
- Singh BN, Sierra-Pagan JE, Gong W, Das S, Theisen JWM, Skie E, Garry MG, Garry DJ. ETV2 (Ets Variant Transcription Factor 2)-Rhoj Cascade Regulates Endothelial Progenitor Cell Migration During Embryogenesis. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2020 Dec;40(12):2875-2890. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.120.314488. Epub 2020 Oct 29. PMID: 33115267.
- Tao H, Lambert JP, Yung TM, Zhu M, Hahn NA, Li D, Lau K, Sturgeon K, Puviindran V, Zhang X, Gong W, Chen XX, Anderson G, Garry DJ, Henkelman RM, Sun Y, Iulianella A, Kawakami Y, Gingras AC, Hui CC, Hopyan S. IRX3/5 regulate mitotic chromatid segregation and limb bud shape. Development. 2020 Oct 5;147(19):dev180042. doi: 10.1242/dev.180042. PMID: 32907847; PMCID: PMC7561487.
- Garry DJ, Caplan AL, Garry MG. Chimeric Humanized Vasculature and Blood: The Intersection of Science and Ethics. Stem Cell Reports. 2020 Apr 14;14(4):538-540. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2020.03.016. PMID: 32294412; PMCID: PMC7160389.
- Kamdar F, Das S, Gong W, Klaassen Kamdar A, Meyers TA, Shah P, Ervasti JM, Townsend D, Kamp TJ, Wu JC, Garry MG, Zhang J, Garry DJ. Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes and Beta-Adrenergic Receptor Blockade in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Cardiomyopathy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020 Mar 17;75(10):1159-1174. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2019.12.066. PMID: 32164890.
- Yellamilli A, Ren Y, McElmurry RT, Lambert JP, Gross P, Mohsin S, Houser SR, Elrod JW, Tolar J, Garry DJ, van Berlo JH. Abcg2-expressing side population cells contribute to cardiomyocyte renewal through fusion. FASEB J. 2020 Apr;34(4):5642-5657. doi: 10.1096/fj.201902105R. Epub 2020 Feb 25. PMID: 32100368; PMCID: PMC7136149.
- Das S, Koyano-Nakagawa N, Gafni O, Maeng G, Singh BN, Rasmussen T, Pan X, Choi KD, Mickelson D, Gong W, Pota P, Weaver CV, Kren S, Hanna JH, Yannopoulos D, Garry MG, Garry DJ. Generation of human endothelium in pig embryos deficient in ETV2. Nat Biotechnol. 2020 Mar;38(3):297-302. doi: 10.1038/s41587-019-0373-y. Epub 2020 Feb 24. PMID: 32094659.
- Garry DJ, Alexy T. Emerging Therapies for Dystrophic Cardiomyopathy. JACC Basic Transl Sci. 2019 Nov 25;4(7):792-794. doi: 10.1016/j.jacbts.2019.10.003. PMID: 31999276; PMCID: PMC6978550.
- Maeng G, Gong W, Das S, Yannopoulos D, Garry DJ, Garry MG. ETV2-null porcine embryos survive to post-implantation following incomplete enucleation. Reproduction. 2020 May;159(5):539-547. doi: 10.1530/REP-19-0382. PMID: 31990674; PMCID: PMC7409374.
Faculty & Senior Researchers
Daniel Garry, MD, PhD
Professor and Abbott Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Sciences
[email protected]
Satyabrata Das, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
[email protected]
Usha Nagarajan, PhD
Researcher 5
Joined the Lab: 01/2024
Education: 2009 PhD from Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Hyderabad, India
Research Interests: Cardiovascular Reprogramming and Regeneration
Experience: Completed two grants/projects on investigating the role of intracellular trafficking in maintaining tissue integrity and organ size using Drosophila melanogaster
Contact: [email protected]
Postdoctoral Associates
Kidus Hailemariam, MS
Bioinformatician
Joined the Lab: 03/2023
Education: 2025 M.S - Bioinformatics and Computational Biology - University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Research Interests: Cardiac regeneration, Interspecies chimera
Awards: 2019 - Richard C. Nelson Scholarship for Academic Merit
Contact: [email protected]
Chan-hee Jo
Postdoctoral Associate
Joined the Lab: May, 2023
Education: 2023 Ph.D.- Veterinary Obstetrics - Gyeongsang National University ,Republic of Korea
Research Interests: Porcine embryo developmental biology. Porcine cloning (SCNT) and generation of interspecies chimera.
Contact: [email protected]
Riley Leonard
NIH Posdoctoral Fellow
Joined the Lab: August 2024
Education: UIowa, PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology
Research Interests: Cardiac Development and Regeneration, Cardiomyocyte proliferation, Cardiomyocyte gene regulation.
Accomplishments:
- Author on 2025 Circulation Manuscript
- Author on 2025 Cardiovascular Research Manuscript
- Appointed Leducq Netwrok Post-Doctoral Fellow
- Appointed Minnesota Muscle T32 Post-Doctoral Fellow
- Oral Presentation at AHA BCVS 2025 (Baltimore, MD)
Contact: [email protected]
Nicole Recka
Postdoctoral Associate
Joined the Lab: July 2025
Education: BS, Cell and Molecular Biology, U Iowa Genetics PhD 2025
Research Interests: Epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of cardiac development
Awards:
- UMN Muscle T32 Training Grant fellow
- UIA Dissertation Fellowship
- UIA T90 Pre-doctoral Fellowship
- UIA Genetics T32 Training Grant
Publications:
- Dhara SP, Rau A, Flister MJ, Recka NM, Laiosa MD, Auer PL, Udvadia AJ. Cellular reprogramming for successful CNS axon regeneration is driven by a temporally changing cast of transcription factors. Sci Rep. 2019 Oct 2;9(1):14198. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50485-6. PMID: 31578350; PMCID: PMC6775158.
- Recka N, Simons A, Cornell RA, Van Otterloo E. Epidermal Loss of PRMT5 Leads to the Emergence of an Atypical Basal Keratinocyte-Like Cell Population and Defective Epidermal Stratification. J Invest Dermatol. 2025 May 7:S0022-202X(25)00449-X. doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2025.04.008. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40339790; PMCID: PMC12239857.
Contact: [email protected]
Graduate Students
Austin Cho, MS
PHD Student
Joined the Lab: February, 2023
Education: 2023 M.S. - Medical Science - Yonsei University College of Medicine, South Korea
Research Interests: Interspecies chimera, generation of exogenic organ
Award: (2022) Brain Korea 21 Project Scholarship - Yonsei University College of Medicine
Contact: [email protected]
Young Geun Choi, MS
PhD Student
Joined the Lab: February, 2023
Education:
- 2016 B.S. - Chemical Engineering - UCLA, USA
- 2022 M.S. - Biomedical Engineering - Johns Hopkins University, USA
Research Interests: ETV2-mediated cell fate conversion
Awards:
- 2024: Basic Cardiovascular Sciences New Investigator Travel Award
- 2024: American Heart Association Student Scholar
Contact: [email protected]
Muxi Li
PhD Student
Joined the Lab: March, 2024
Education: 2023 B.S. Pharmaceutics, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine
Research Interests: Cardiovascular regeneration
Contact: [email protected]
Saumya Ranjan
PhD Student
Joined the Lab: October, 2023
Education: 2023 M.S - Biotechnology - Utkal University, India.
Research Interests: Cardiac regeneration
Accomplishments: 2021 - DBT Post Graduate Teaching Programme Studentship - Govt. of India
Contact: [email protected]
Undergraduate Student
Diya Roy
Undergraduate Student
Joined the lab: September, 2022
Education: Undergraduate student at CBS
Research Interests: cardiac development
Contact: [email protected]
Support
Octavian Cornea, JD
Research Ops Manager
Joined the Lab: 03/2025
Education: 1996 - JD, "Titu Maiorescu" University & University of Bucharest
Research Interests: Grants, budgets, digital development, operations in the Garry Labs
Experience:
- 2000 - 2019 Thomas Lab Admin Manager, Minnesota Muscle T32 coordinator, UMN
- 2019 - 2025 Department of Medicine Pre-award Coordinator, UMN
Contact: [email protected]
Lab Alumni
Wuming Gong, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Contact: [email protected]
Matthew Jacobson
Student
Contact: [email protected]
Guenho Maeng
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Contact: [email protected]
Thijs Larson, BS
MD/PhD student, UPENN
Javier Sierra-Pagan
Medical Student
Contact: [email protected]
Mateo Taddeini
Student
Contact: [email protected]
Joshua Theisen, MD, PhD
Post-Doctoral Associate
Contact: [email protected]
Cyprian Weaver, PhD, MS, BA
Associate Professor of Medicine
Contact:[email protected]
Zhenqing Ye, PhD
Assistant Professor
Joined the Lab: 11/2024
Education: 2008 Ph.D - Bioinformatics - Zhejiang University, China
Research Interests: Bioinformatics algorithms, tool development
Contact: [email protected]