Brian L. Lin, PhD

Assistant Professor

Locations

Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy

Contact Information

Education

Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 2023
PhD, Loyola University, 2016
BS, Miami University, 2008

Biography

Brian Lin started his research career in Marine Biology during his undergraduate studies at Miami University, where Brian also studied skeletal muscle in birds and amphibians. After graduating in 2008, Brian worked as a behavioral neuroscience technician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Northwestern University. From 2011 - 2016, Brian studied Cell and Molecular Physiology at Loyola University Chicago focusing on the role of skeletal muscle myofilament proteins in the lab of Sakthivel Sadayappan. From 2016-2023, Brian studied the role of TRP channels in heart and kidney disease in the lab of David Kass in the Division of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins. From that work, Brian focused on the role of TRPC6 in the context of Duchenne muscular dystrophy for which he was awarded a K99/R00 award. Brian started his independent lab in the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he continues to study novel therapeutics targeting TRP channels to treat dystrophic cardiomyopathy.

View Brian's lab page

Research Interests

We study mechanical signaling in the heart in the context of muscular dystrophy. These diseases are commonly associated with skeletal muscle dysfunction, such as severe muscle weakness and the loss of the ability to walk. Our focus is on the damage to the heart, because most patients with muscular dystrophy die from heart failure.

Our lab applies spatial transcriptomics, animal models of heart disease, single cardiomyocyte biomechanics, in silico drug discovery, nanoparticle drug delivery, and human stem cell engineering platforms to enable testing and screening of exciting new therapies to treat muscular dystrophy and beyond.

ATP Citrate Lyase Supports Cardiac Function and NAD+/NADH Balance And Is Depressed in Human Heart Failure.

(Meddeb M, Koleini N, Jun S, Keykhaei M, Farshidfar F, Zhao L, Kwon S, Lin B, Keceli G, Paolocci N, Hahn V, Sharma K, Pearce EL, Kass DA.) bioRxiv. 2024 Jun 10 PMID: 38915649 PMCID: PMC11195057 06/25/2024
Potential limitations of microdystrophin gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

(Hart CC, Lee YI, Xie J, Gao G, Lin BL, Hammers DW, Sweeney HL.) JCI Insight. 2024 May 07;9(11) PMID: 38713520 PMCID: PMC11382885 05/07/2024
Hypereosinophilia causes progressive cardiac pathologies in mice.

(Diny NL, Wood MK, Won T, Talor MV, Lukban C, Bedja D, Wang N, Kalinoski H, Daoud A, Talbot CC Jr, Leei Lin B, Čiháková D.) iScience. 2023 Oct 20;26(10):107990 PMID: 37829205 PMCID: PMC10565781 10/13/2023
Cadmium exposure induces a sex-dependent decline in left ventricular cardiac function.

(Fitch ML, Kabir R, Ebenebe OV, Taube N, Garbus H, Sinha P, Wang N, Mishra S, Lin BL, Muller GK, Kohr MJ.) Life Sci. 2023 Jul 01;324:121712 PMID: 37100378 PMCID: PMC10246466 04/27/2023
An improved reporter identifies ruxolitinib as a potent and cardioprotective CaMKII inhibitor.

(Reyes Gaido OE, Pavlaki N, Granger JM, Mesubi OO, Liu B, Lin BL, Long A, Walker D, Mayourian J, Schole KL, Terrillion CE, Nkashama LJ, Hulsurkar MM, Dorn LE, Ferrero KM, Huganir RL, Müller FU, Wehrens XHT, Liu JO, Luczak ED, Bezzerides VJ, Anderson ME.) Sci Transl Med. 2023 Jun 21;15(701):eabq7839 PMID: 37343080 PMCID: PMC11022683 06/21/2023
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 Rep. 2023 Apr 25;42(4):112330 PMID: 37014753 PMCID: PMC10545814 04/05/2023
Pharmacological TRPC6 inhibition improves survival and muscle function in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

(Lin BL, Shin JY, Jeffreys WP, Wang N, Lukban CA, Moorer MC, Velarde E, Hanselman OA, Kwon S, Kannan S, Riddle RC, Ward CW, Pullen SS, Filareto A, Kass DA.) JCI Insight. 2022 Oct 10;7(19) PMID: 36099033 PMCID: PMC9675567 09/14/2022
Depletion of skeletal muscle satellite cells attenuates pathology in muscular dystrophy.

(Boyer JG, Huo J, Han S, Havens JR, Prasad V, Lin BL, Kass DA, Song T, Sadayappan S, Khairallah RJ, Ward CW, Molkentin JD.) Nat Commun. 2022 May 26;13(1):2940 PMID: 35618700 PMCID: PMC9135721 05/27/2022
Heart neurons use clock genes to control myocyte proliferation.

(Tampakakis E, Gangrade H, Glavaris S, Htet M, Murphy S, Lin BL, Liu T, Saberi A, Miyamoto M, Kowalski W, Mukouyama YS, Lee G, Minichiello L, Kwon C.) Sci Adv. 2021 Dec 03;7(49):eabh4181 PMID: 34851661 PMCID: PMC8635446 12/02/2021
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 Comput Biol. 2021 Sep;17(9):e1009305 PMID: 34534204 PMCID: PMC8448341 09/18/2021
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.) Skelet Muscle. 2021 May 17;11(1):13 PMID: 34001262 PMCID: PMC8127317 05/19/2021
HIF2A gain-of-function mutation modulates the stiffness of smooth muscle cells and compromises vascular mechanics.

(Chan XY, Volkova E, Eoh J, Black R, Fang L, Gorashi R, Song J, Wang J, Elliott MB, Barreto-Ortiz SF, Chen J, Lin BL, Santhanam L, Cheng L, Lee FS, Prchal JT, Gerecht S.) iScience. 2021 Apr 23;24(4):102246 PMID: 33796838 PMCID: PMC7995528 04/03/2021