Research
General Information
ZIRC
ZFIN ID: ZDB-PERS-960805-109
Chin, Alvin J.
Alvin J. Chin Lab
Cardiovascular Research
The Joseph Stokes Research Institute
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Abramson Building 703 I
3615 Civic Center Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA
19104-4318
USA
Phone: (215) 590-5820 Email: chinalvi@mail.med.upenn.edu
FAX: (215) 590-5454 URL: http://stokes.chop.edu/research/profiles/?ID=17
Biography and Research Interests:

EDUCATION:

A.B., Harvard College, 1973 (magna cum laude, Biochemical Sciences)
M.D., Stanford University, 1977
Pediatrics residency years, 1977-1979
Pediatric Cardiology fellowship, 1979-1982 (Children's Hospital, Boston)
Developmental Biology fellowship 1994; 1995-1999 (Massachusetts General Hospital; University of Pennsylvania)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

1. Assembly, positioning, morphogenetic movements, and patterning of the heart tube in the developing embryo.
2. Patterning of the vascular system.
3. L-R axis specification.

I am a cardiologist with a particular interest in the genetic basis of human birth defects involving the heart and blood vessels. The zebrafish forms a heart tube with the same four segments (sinus venosus, atrium, ventricle, and bulbus arteriosus) as the heart of higher vertebrates. One of my goals is to identify the molecular pathways that determine how the early heart tube is assembled and shaped. Since the heart is the first organ to be asymmetrically positioned in the vertebrate embryo, I also wish to better understand the processes involved in distinguishing left from right during development.

The techniques used in these studies include mutagenesis screens, fate mapping regions of the early gastrula, classical genetics, transplantation, cloning, in situ hybridization, and gene overexpression by mRNA injection. Currently among the most active projects are: an analysis of early heart tube position and heart tube looping direction in fish with various zygotic recessive mutations which perturb gastrulation, an analysis of the temporal and spatial expression domains of several molecules with roles in blood vessel patterning, and detailed characterization of the cardiovascular phenotype of a newly discovered maternal effect recessive mutation, ichabod, which alters head formation.

Publications:
Chatterjee, B., Chin, A.J., Valdimarsson, G., Finis, C., Sonntag, J.M., Choi, B.Y., Tao, L., Balasubramanian, K., Bell, C., Krufka, A., Kozlowski, D.J., Johnson, R.G., and Lo, C.W. (2005) Developmental regulation and expression of the zebrafish connexin43 gene. Dev. Dyn.. 233(3):890-906
Kochilas, L.K., Potluri, V., Gitler, A., Balasubramanian, K., and Chin, A.J. (2003) Cloning and characterization of zebrafish tbx1. Gene Expr. Patterns. 3(5):645-651
Ryan, K. and Chin, A.J. (2003) T-box genes and cardiac development. Birth Defects Res. C Embryo Today. 69(1):25-37
Chatterjee, B., Li, Y.X., Zdanowicz, M., Sonntag, J.M., Chin, A.J., Kozlowski, D.J., Valdimarsson, G., Kirby, M.L., and Lo, C.W. (2001) Analysis of Cx43alpha1 promoter function in the developing zebrafish embryo. Cell Adhes. Commun.. 8(4-6):289-292
Liang, D., Chang, J.R., Chin, A.J., Smith, A., Kelly, C., Weinberg, E.S., and Ge, R. (2001) The role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in vasculogenesis, angiogenesis, and hematopoiesis in zebrafish development. Mech. Dev.. 108(1-2):29-43
Wallace, K.N., Yusuff, S., Sonntag, J.M., Chin, A.J., and Pack, M. (2001) Zebrafish hhex regulates liver development and digestive organ chirality. Genesis. 1-143
Chin, A.J. (2000) Analysis of two aspects of left-right patterning of the vertebrate heart. Heart tube position and heart tube chirality. Meth. Mol. Biol.. 136:261-270
Chin, A.J., Tsang, M., and Weinberg, E.S. (2000) Heart and gut chiralities are controlled independently from initial heart position in the developing zebrafish. Dev. Biol.. 227(2):403-421
Kelly, C., Chin, A.J., Leatherman, J.L., Kozlowski, D.J., and Weinberg, E.S. (2000) Maternally controlled ß-catenin-mediated signaling is required for organizer formation in the zebrafish. Development. 127(18):3899-3911
Liang, D., Xu, X.Z., Chin, A.J., Balasubramaniyan, N.V., Teo, M.A.L., Lam, T.J., Weinberg, E.S., and Ge, R.W. (1998) Cloning and characterization of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from zebrafish, Danio rerio. Biochim. Biophys. Acta Gene Struct. Exp.. 1397:14-20
Chen, J.-N., van Eeden, F.J.M., Warren, K.S., Chin, A., Nüsslein-Volhard, C., Haffter, P., and Fishman, M.C. (1997) Left-right pattern of cardiac BMP4 may drive asymmetry of the heart in zebrafish. Development. 124(21):4373-4382
Chin, A.J., Chen, J.N., and Weinberg, E.S. (1997) Bone morphogenetic protein-4 expression characterizes inductive boundaries in organs of developing zebrafish. Dev. Genes Evol.. 207(2):107-114

Non-Zebrafish Publications:

selected from a total of 90:

Ginsberg JP, Cnaan A, Zhao H, Clark BJ, Paridon SM, Chin AJ, Rychik J, Hogarty AN, Cohen MI, Barber G, Rutkowsky MM, Kimball TR, DeLaat C, Steinherz LJ, Silber JH. Using health related quality of life measures to predict cardiac function in survivors exposed to anthracyclines. J Clin Oncol 2004 (in press).

Silber JH, Cnaan A, Clark BJ, Paridon SM, Chin AJ, Rychik J, Hogarty AN, Cohen MI, Barber G, Rutkowsky MM, Kimball TR, DeLaat C, Steinherz LJ, Zhao H. Enalapril to prevent cardiac function decline in long-term survivors of pediatric cancer exposed to anthracyclines. J Clin Oncol 2004; 22:820-9.