Rate My Professor Deqiang Li

Li's research investigates epigenetic and posttranscriptional mechanisms regulating heart development, cardiomyocyte proliferation, myocardial trabeculation and compaction, and congenital heart defects. Key studies include demonstrating the essential role of epicardial histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) in suppressing microRNAs to promote growth factor production for proper ventricular wall development, published in Circulation Research in 2022. His team showed that endocardial HDAC3 is required for myocardial trabeculation (Nature Communications, 2024) and that HDAC7 promotes cardiomyocyte proliferation by suppressing myocyte enhancer factor 2 (Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, 2024). Additional publications explore m6A RNA modifications in heart development, zinc transporters in ventricular noncompaction cardiomyopathy, and fibrosis mechanisms in dilated cardiomyopathy. Li received the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund Discovery Award in 2021 for 'Mechanisms of Fibrosis in Dilated Cardiomyopathy,' an American Heart Association Transformative Project Award in 2020, and a Career Development Award in 2017. His research has garnered over 2,500 citations and is supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant R01HL153406.