Xun Ai, MD
Professor
Physiology and Cell Biology
Academic contact
Academic information
- Department: Physiology and Cell Biology
Research interests
- Calcium Signaling in Electrophysiological Pathogenesis
- Atrial Fibrillation
- Ventricular Arrhythmias
- Heart Failure
- Ischemic Stroke
- Stress-Evoked Thrombogenesis
- Aging and/or Alcohol-Evoked Abnormal Emotional Behaviors and Impaired Cognitive Function
About
Biography
The Ai lab focus on understanding the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmia including atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias in stressed hearts (e.g. heart failure, aging, alcohol abuse, obesity) and developing effective novel therapeutic approaches to treat and prevent arrhythmias. Another focus of the Ai lab is understanding stress induced calcium mishandling in synaptic physiology and behavioral defects and cognitive impairments.
Our laboratory has established several state-of-the-art electrophysiological techniques including dual channel optical mapping and confocal Ca imaging and in vivo arrhythmia induction in intact hearts and isolated myocytes from humans and animal models. In addition, some updated molecular biochemical techniques such as flow cytometry, and enzyme activity assays, qPCR, immunoblotting, immunostaining, ChIP assay, gene cloning have also been well-established in the lab.
Credentials
Education
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
- Postdoctoral Training
- University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
Research
Research interests
- Calcium Signaling in Electrophysiological Pathogenesis
- Atrial Fibrillation
- Ventricular Arrhythmias
- Heart Failure
- Ischemic Stroke
- Stress-Evoked Thrombogenesis
- Aging and/or Alcohol-Evoked Abnormal Emotional Behaviors and Impaired Cognitive Function