Wangde Dai, MD

Dr. Wangde Dai earned his MD from Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, P.R. of China in September 1999. Due to his strong interest in basic medical science research as a postdoctoral research fellow, he joined the vascular research laboratory of Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California from 2000 to 2002. During that time period, his research project involved isolation and culture of blood vessel smooth muscle cell and endothelial cell, transfected these cells with GFP, tPA and NOS genes, then seeded these cultured genetic engineered cells on to a prosthetic graft, which were finally implanted to the abdominal aorta in rabbits under the supervision of Drs. Hong Yu and Vincent L. Rowe. The goal of this research was to investigate whether gene transfer with tPA and NOS could prevent the neointimal hyperplasia in the implanted prosthetic graft in vivo.

From June 2002 to 2014, Dr. Dai worked in Dr. Robert Kloner’s laboratory in the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital. Under the mentorship of Dr. Kloner, his research interest mainly focused on seeking cardioprotective strategies using both acute and chronic myocardial infarction in rats. These strategies included intramyocardial cell transplantation and collagen as well as heart tissue derived matrix implantation in chronic rat myocardial infarction model and post-ischemia hypothermia therapy in ischemia/reperfusion rat model.

He also tested cardioprotective effects of various kind of drugs, such as Acetaminophen, Olmesartan, a mitochondria-targeting peptide Bendavia, etc. in rat myocardial infarct model. He has published 44 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 6 book chapters as an author or a co-author.

In 2015, Dr. Dai, along with Dr. Kloner’s Cardiovascular Research team, joined the Huntington Medical Research Institutes. His research will continue focusing on cardioprotective strategies, searching to benefit myocardial infarction patients, as well as regenerative cardiology.