Caitlin O'Meara, PhD

Associate Professor

Locations

Cardiovascular Center

Contact Information

Education

Postdoctoral Training, Harvard Medical School, 2016
PhD, 果冻影院, 2011

Research Interests

Methodologies and Techniques
• Echocardiography
• Cardiac surgeries and phenotyping- mammalian models
• Histology
• Microscopy- fluorescent, confocal
• Flow cytometry
• FACS sorting
• Polymerase Chain Reaction
• Molecular cloning
• Western blotting
• Cell culture- primary cardiac cells
• RNA sequencing (bulk and single cell RNA sequencing)
• Genetics/Genomics

Research Interests
Overarching concept:
Higher organisms such as zebrafish and neonatal mice are capable of complete heart regeneration following partial amputation. Although adult humans and adult mice lack this regeneration response, there is great interest in understanding how heart regeneration can occur in lower organisms so that we can activate pro-reparative processes in humans to better treat patients following myocardial infarction. My lab is interested in understanding the cell biology and molecular pathways that facilitate heart regeneration, repair, and cardiomyocyte cell cycle activity.

Interleukin 4/13 signaling:
Cytokines and growth factors play a significant role in the initiation of tissue and organ regeneration in large part by directly stimulating proliferation of resident cells, or by recruitment and activation of wound healing inflammatory cells. The type II cytokines Interleukin 4 (IL4) and Interleukin 13 (IL13) are well known to mediate type II immunity, but also can signal to non-hematopoietic cell types. Our lab is interested in studying the various cell types in the heart that respond to IL4/13 during homeostasis and post injury, as well as the cell types producing these cytokines. Overall, IL4/13 signaling in the heart improves the reparative response and cardiac outcomes post injury, therefore understanding the mechanism(s) by which these cytokines improve cardiac function could lead to new therapeutic strategies for treating heart failure.

Cytoarchitectural proteins in cardiomyocyte function:
Cardiac regenerative approaches aimed to drive proliferation of CMs have shown great promise in recent years. However, there is currently poor understanding as to how cell structural changes are regulated to promote cell cycle re-entry, and importantly the factors that facilitate re-integration of CMs into the functional myocardium. This latter point is particularly significant as driving CM cell cycle itself can lead to adverse phenotypes such as heart failure or arrhythmia. Considering the importance of the intercalated disc (ICD) and CM cytoskeletal structure in regulating cell signaling and maintaining cardiac function, we aim to understand the proteins that control CM cytoarchitecture and re-establishment of ICD during cardiac development, regeneration, and repair.

Genetic determinants underlying cardiac repair:
The physiological response to cardiac injury such as myocardial infarction is highly variable in humans. Emerging literature has identified several cardiac cell types that are thought to protect individuals from adverse outcomes following injury, and even promote some degree of myocardial regeneration. Specifically, emerging evidence demonstrates that cardiac resident macrophage populations promote reparative healing in the context of cardiac injury. Macrophage subtypes are present in the steady state heart prior to injury, are present at variable frequencies across genetically inbred rodent strains, and are easily quantifiable. We leverage genetically diverse rat models to determine frequency and sub-type of tissue resident cardiac macrophages in the steady state heart and determine how these populations relate to outcomes after myocardial injury. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Michaela Patterson’s lab.

Training and Mentoring
A priority of mine is high quality training of the next generation of scientists. Graduate students and postdoctoral in the O’Meara lab have been recipients of independent NIH F31 and F32 grants and have been awarded placement on competitive predoctoral and postdoctoral T32 training grants. We are currently recruiting graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to work on highly collaborative and innovative cardiac repair research projects.

(Swift SK, Purdy AL, Kolell ME, Andresen KG, Lahue C, Buddell T, Akins KA, Rau CD, O'Meara CC, Patterson M.) Development. 2023 Apr 01;150(7) PMID: 36912240 PMCID: PMC10113957 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85152488769 03/14/2023
(Puzyrenko A, Jacobs ER, Padilla N, Devine A, Aljadah M, Gantner BN, Pan AY, Lai S, Dai Q, Rubenstein JC, North PE, Simpson PM, Willoughby RE, O'Meara CC, Flinn MA, Lough JW, Ibrahim EH, Zheng Z, Sun Y, Felix J, Hunt BC, Ross G, Rui H, Benjamin IJ.) J Am Heart Assoc. 2023 Feb 21;12(4):e027990 PMID: 36789856 PMCID: PMC10111490 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85148479620 02/16/2023
(Li S, Olde Heuvel F, Rehman R, Aousji O, Froehlich A, Li Z, Jark R, Zhang W, Conquest A, Woelfle S, Schoen M, O Meara CC, Reinhardt RL, Voehringer D, Kassubek J, Ludolph A, Huber-Lang M, Knöll B, Morganti-Kossmann MC, Brockmann MM, Boeckers T, Roselli F.) Nat Commun. 2023 Jan 13;14(1):200 PMID: 36639371 PMCID: PMC9839781 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85146272971 01/14/2023
(Flinn MA, Alvarez-Argote S, Knas MC, Almeida VA, Paddock SJ, Zhou X, Buddell T, Jamal A, Taylor R, Liu P, Drnevich J, Patterson M, Link BA, O'Meara CC.) Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023;10:1142612 PMID: 36998974 PMCID: PMC10043314 04/01/2023
(Bakhshian Nik A, Alvarez-Argote S, O'Meara CC.) Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2022 Nov 01;323(5):H833-H844 PMID: 36149768 PMCID: PMC9602781 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85140273361 09/24/2022
(Auchampach J, Han L, Huang GN, Kühn B, Lough JW, O'Meara CC, Payumo AY, Rosenthal NA, Sucov HM, Yutzey KE, Patterson M.) Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2022 Apr 01;322(4):H579-H596 PMID: 35179974 PMCID: PMC8934681 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85127729067 02/19/2022
(de Castro Brás LE, Schibalski RS, Ilatovskaya DV, O'Meara CC, DeLeon-Pennell KY.) Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022;9:861442 PMID: 35509270 PMCID: PMC9058098 05/06/2022
(Paddock SJ, Swift SK, Alencar-Almeida V, Kenarsary A, Alvarez-Argote S, Flinn MA, Patterson M, O'Meara CC.) J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2021 Dec;161:62-74 PMID: 34343540 PMCID: PMC8629844 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85112431618 08/04/2021
(Alvarez-Argote S, O'Meara CC.) Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Jul 25;22(15) PMID: 34360689 PMCID: PMC8347787 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85111068209 08/08/2021
(Lindsey ML, de Castro Brás LE, DeLeon-Pennell KY, Frangogiannis NG, Halade GV, O'Meara CC, Spinale FG, Kassiri Z, Kirk JA, Kleinbongard P, Ripplinger CM, Brunt KR.) Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2021 Jul 01;321(1):H208-H213 PMID: 34114891 PMCID: PMC8321810 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85111280369 06/12/2021
(Flinn MA, Otten C, Brandt ZJ, Bostrom JR, Kenarsary A, Wan TC, Auchampach JA, Abdelilah-Seyfried S, O'Meara CC, Link BA.) Development. 2020 Aug 25;147(16) PMID: 32843528 PMCID: PMC7473637 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85089923843 08/28/2020
(Paddock SJ, O'Meara CC.) Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2020 Feb 01;318(2):H326-H328 PMID: 31922889 PMCID: PMC7052619 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85078814455 01/11/2020

O'Meara Lab Staff

Santiago Alvarez, MD

Graduate Student

salvarez@mcw.edu

My research interest focuses on cardiac recovering, tissue remodeling and heart failure development after acute cardiac injury, looking particularly at the role of interleukin 4 and 13 in cardiac macrophages in promoting cardiac regeneration and improving outcome.