Targeted Immunotherapy For Atrial Fibrillation

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

2:30 PM-4:00 PM

BIOMED Seminar

Title:
Targeted Immunotherapy For Atrial Fibrillation               

Speaker:
Noor Momin, PhD
Stephenson Foundation Term Assistant Professor of Innovation in Bioengineering
Department of Bioengineering
School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Pennsylvania

Details:
Atrial fibrillation (Afib) is the most prevalent arrhythmia, affecting nearly 10% of the elderly. Current Afib treatments are limited to medications and procedures that control heart rhythm, such as cardioversion and ablation. However, Afib recurrence and progression after these procedures is common especially since underlying vulnerabilities like fibrosis cannot yet be treated. Many factors drive atrial fibrosis, although recent data shows the immune system, specifically cytokines secreted by atrial macrophages, plays a causal role. The overlooked immune etiology of atrial fibrosis warrants consideration as a target for Afib treatment.

We will discuss our recent study that implicates osteopontin, which is encoded by Spp1, and secreted by atrial macrophages in atrial fibrosis. We learned that silencing Spp1 in this subset of cardiac macrophages using an engineered antibody-siRNA conjugate reduces atrial fibrosis and suppresses AFib, thus finally offering an immunotherapy for this common arrhythmia.

Biosketch:
Noor Momin, PhD, completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and earned her PhD in Biological Engineering at MIT under the supervision of Professor K. Dane Wittrup. For her doctoral thesis, Dr. Momin engineered a localization strategy that improves the safety and effectiveness of cytokine therapies used for cancer treatment. This technology is being evaluated in canine clinical trials and has been licensed for human drug development. She went on to conduct postdoctoral training in Professor Matthias Nahrendorf’s lab at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital where she examined the role of leukocytes in arrhythmia.

In January of 2024, Dr. Momin launched her independent research group at University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Bioengineering and the Penn Center for Precision Engineering for Health. The Momin lab seeks to understand and modulate the immune response for targeted treatment of cardiovascular diseases by leveraging insight and tools in cardiovascular immunology, protein engineering, and pharmacokinetic modeling.

Contact Information

Carolyn Riley
cr63@drexel.edu