Journal of Stem Cell Research & Therapy

Rita C R Perlingeiro

Rita C R Perlingeiro
Associate Professor, Lillehei Heart Institute, Department of Medicine
University of Minnesota, USA

Biography

Dr. Rita C. R. Perlingeiro received her Ph.D. at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. She completed her postdoctoral training in Stem Cell Biology at the Whitehead Institute, MIT, in Cambridge, MA. She started her own laboratory in the Department of Developmental Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2003. Currently, she is as an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, and a member of the Lillehei Heart Institute at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She has authored over 30 research articles as well as a chapter, "Regulation of Angiogenesis" in Coronary Heart Disease: Clinical Pathological, Imaging and Molecular Profiles, to be in press by the end of this year. In 2008, Dr. Perlingeiro and colleagues published a seminal article, "Functional skeletal muscle regeneration from differentiating embryonic stem cells" (Nat. Med. 2008, 14:134-143). This was the first example of using embryonic stem cells to improve muscle function in muscular dystrophy. Such findings have extraordinary biological and therapeutic significance.

Research Interest

The main focus of the Perlingeiro laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling lineage decision from early mesoderm towards skeletal muscle, blood, and endothelial cells, with the ultimate goal to generate specific cell types from ES and iPS cells for therapeutic applications.