Maturation/Aging | Chulan Kwon Laboratory at Johns Hopkins

Maturation & Aging

We are interested in investigating how baby cardiomyocytes give rise to adult cardiomyocytes and how aged cardiomyocytes can be rejuvenated. Our goal is to understand cellular processes that drive cardiac maturation and aging at molecular and electrophysiological levels. By studying these mechanisms, we hope to uncover strategies to generate mature cardiomyocytes from stem cells and promote healthy heart function across the lifespan.

CMAC: A Deep Learning Framework for Absolute Cardiomyocyte Transcription Age Estimation

Quansah KK, Zureick N, Chen E, Murphy S, Anderson E, Kwon E, Suh D, Stein-O'Brien G, Cahan P, Kwon C

bioRxiv 2026

Decoding Cardiac Development and Maturation at Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomic Resolution

Li B, Liu X, Murph S, Tampakakis E, Kwon C

Circulation Research 2026

In Vivo Bioincubation Promotes Maturation of Human iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes in Neonatal Rat and Pig Hearts

Wang H, Andersen P, Inoue T, Lee DI, Hibino N, Kwon C

bioRxiv 2026

SureQuant™ IS-PRM Enables Cross-Species Targeted Quantification of Retinoid Metabolism and Signaling Proteins in the Heart

Sedighi S, O'Meally RN, Syed SB, Amadei H, Li B, Kwon C, Vats A, Zack D, Margulies KB, O'Rourke B, Abadir PM, Cole RN, Foster DB

bioRxiv 2026

Splicing Factor SF3B2 Regulates Cardiomyocyte Calcium Handling through Alternative Splicing of Cardiac Ion Channel Genes

Murphy S, Wang H, Zureick N, Koakutsu M, Suh D, Lee DI, Kwon C

bioRxiv 2026

Transcriptome-based Maturation Assessment Revealed Pro-Maturation Transcription Factors of Cardiomyocytes

Chanthra N, Murphy S, Miyamoto M, Masuyama N, Yachie N, Kwon C, Uosaki H

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2026

In Vivo Bioreactor Matures iPSC-CMs for MLP Disease Modeling

Murphy SA, Cho G, Limphong P, Lee DI, Kwon C

bioRxiv 2025

Rhythms of Growth: Unveiling the Mechanobiology behind Heart Maturation

Leite Coscarella I, Kwon C

Journal of Physiology 2025

A Transcriptional Enhancer Regulates Cardiac Maturation

Htet M, Lei S, Bajpayi S, Gangrade H, Arvantis M, Zoitou A, Murphy S, Chen EZ, Koleni N, Lin BL, Kwon C, Tampakakis E

Nature Cardiovascular Research 2024

Trajectory Reconstruction Identifies Dysregulation of Perinatal Maturation Programs in Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes

Kannan S, Miyamoto M, Zhu R, Lynott M, Guo J, Chen EZ, Colas AR, Lin BL, Kwon C

Cell Reports 2023

Conserved Transcription Factors Promote Cell Fate Stability and Restrict Reprogramming Potential in Differentiated Cells

Missinato M, Murphy S, Lynott M, Yu MS, Kervadec A, Chang YL, Kannan S, Loreti M, Lee C, Amatya P, Tanaka H, Huang CT, Puri PL, Kwon C, Adams PD, Qian L, Sacco A, Andersen P, Colas AR

Nature Communications 2023

Cross-Organ Transcriptomic Comparison Reveals Universal Factors during Maturation

Kambhampati S, Murphy S, Uosaki H, Kwon C

Journal of Computational Biology 2022

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Myogenic Progenitors Undergo Maturation to Quiescent Satellite Cells upon Engraftment

Sun C, Kannan S, Choi IY, Lim H, Zhang H, Chen GS, Zhang N, Park SH, Serra C, Iyer SR, Lloyd TE, Kwon C, Lovering RM, Lim SB, Andersen P, Wagner KR, Lee G

Cell Stem Cell 2022

Sympathetic Neurons Regulate Cardiomyocyte Maturation in Culture

Kowalski WJ, Garcia-Pak IH, Li W, Uosaki H, Tampakakis E, Zou J, Lin Y, Patterson K, Kwon C, Mukouyama YS

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022

Heart Neurons Use Clock Genes to Control Myocyte Proliferation

Tampakakis E, Gangrade H, Glavaris S, Htet M, Murphy SA, Lin BL, Liu T, Saberi A, Miyamoto M, Kowalski W, Mukouyama YS, Lee G, Minichiello L, Kwon C

Science Advances 2021

Transcriptomic Entropy Benchmarks Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte Maturation against Endogenous Tissue at Single Cell Level

Kannan S, Farid M, Lin BL, Miyamoto M, Kwon C

PLoS Computational Biology 2021

Maturing Heart Muscle Cells: Mechanisms and Transcriptomic Insights

Murphy SA, Chen EZ, Tung L, Boheler KR, Kwon C

Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2021

PGC1/PPAR Drive Cardiomyocyte Maturation at Single Cell Level via YAP1 and SF3B2

Murphy SA, Miyamoto M, Kervadec A, Kannan S, Tampakakis E, Kambhampati S, Lin BL, Paek S, Andersen P, Lee DI, Zhu R, An SS, Kass DA, Uosaki H, Colas AR, Kwon C

Nature Communications 2021

Mechanical Stimulation Enhances Development of Scaffold-free, 3D-printed, Engineered Heart Tissue Grafts

Lui C, Chin AF, Park S, Yeung E, Kwon C, Tomaselli G, Chen Y, Hibino N

J Tissue Eng Regen Med. 2021

Heart Generation and Regeneration

Tampakakis E, Kwon C

Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2021

Single Cell RNA-seq Analysis of the Flexor Digitorum Brevis Mouse Myofibers

Verma RX, Kannan S, Lin BL, Fomchenko KM, Nieuwenhuis TO, Patil AH, Lukban C, Yang X, Fox-Talbot K, McCall MN, Kwon C, Kass DA, Rosenberg AZ, Halushka MK

Skeletal Muscle 2021

A Novel Fluorescent Reporter System Identifies Laminin-511/521 as Potent Regulators of Cardiomyocyte Maturation

Chanthra N, Abe T, Miyamoto M, Sekiguchi K, Kwon C, Hanazono Y, Uosaki H

Scientific Reports 2020

Large Particle Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting Enables High Quality Single Cell RNA-Sequencing and Functional Analysis of Adult Cardiomyocytes

Kannan S, Miyamoto M, Lin B, Zhu R, Murphy S, Kass D, Andersen P, Kwon C

Circulation Research 2019

Neurons Derived from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Integrate into Rat Brain Circuits and Maintain Both Excitatory and Inhibitory Synaptic Activities

Yin X, Xu JC, Cho GS, Kwon C, Dawson TM, Dawson VL

eNeuro 2019

Regulation of Cardiomyocyte Maturation during Critical Perinatal Window

Kannan S, Kwon C

Journal of Physiology 2018

Use of a neonatal rat system as a bioincubator to generate adult-like mature cardiomyocytes from human and mouse pluripotent stem cells

Cho GS, Tampakakis E, Andersen P, Kwon C

Nature Protocols 2017

Neonatal Transplantation Confers Maturation of PSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes Conducive to Modeling Cardiomyopathy

Cho GS, Lee DI, Tampakakis E, Murphy S, Andersen P, Uosaki H, Chelko S, Chakir K, Hong I, Seo K, Chen HV, Chen X, Basso C, Houser SR, Tomaselli GF, O'Rourke B, Judge DP, Kass DA*, Kwon C*

Cell Reports 2017

Functional Coupling with Cardiac Muscle Promotes Maturation of hPSC-Derived Sympathetic Neurons

Oh Y, Cho GS, Li Z, Hong I, Zhu R, Kim MJ, Kim YJ, Tampakakis E, Tung L, Huganir R, Dong X, Kwon C*, Lee G*

Cell Stem Cell 2016

Transcriptional Landscape of Cardiomyocyte Maturation

Uosaki H, Cahan P, Lee DI, Wang S, Miyamoto M, Fernandez L, Kass DA, Kwon C

Cell Reports 2015

Mutations in Alström Protein Impair Terminal Differentiation of Cardiomyocytes

Shenje LT, Andersen P, Halushka MK, Lui C, Fernandez L, Collin GB, Amat-Alarcon N, Meschino W, Cutz E, Chang K, Yonescu R, Batista DA, Chen Y, Chelko S, Crosson JE, Scheel J, Vricella L, Craig BD, Marosy BA, Mohr DW, Hetrick KN, Romm JM, Scott AF, Valle D, Naggert JK, Kwon C, Doheny KF, Judge DP

Nature Communications 2014

Regenerative Medicine for the Heart: Perspectives on Stem-Cell Therapy

Cho GS, Fernandez L, Kwon C

Antioxidant & Redox Signaling 2014