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Photo of  Onur Kanisicak, PhD

Onur Kanisicak, PhD

Assistant Professor

Pathology & Laboratory Medicine | College of Medicine

Education/Credentials
  • Post Doctoral Fellowship: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (Cardiovascular Bio.)
  • Ph.D: University of Connecticut (Genetics and Genomics)
  • Master of Science in Genetics: University of Connecticut (Genetics)
  • Bachelor of Science: Istanbul University (Biomedical Sciences)
Contact Information
Research Interests

Kanisicak Laboratory conducts cutting-edge studies in the field of cellular biology and regenerative medicine with a particular interest in fibrogenesis in cardiovascular diseases using transgenic mouse models. The significance of fibroblasts in tissue homeostasis, repair, and disease is a new frontier and currently a highly innovative area of investigation as we still do not fully understand how these cells function within the heart and other organs. There are many striking weaknesses in the field surrou...

Peer Reviewed Publications

Alam, Perwez; Maliken, Bryan D; Ivey, Malina J; Jones, Shannon M; Kanisicak, Onur 2020. Isolation, Transfection, and Long-Term Culture of Adult Mouse and Rat Cardiomyocytes. Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE, 164,

Evdokiou, Alexander; Kanisicak, Onur; Gierek, Stephanie; Barry, Amanda; Ivey, Malina J; Zhang, Xiang; Bodnar, Richard J; Satish, Latha 2020. Characterization of Burn Eschar Pericytes. Journal of clinical medicine, 9 2,

Wu, Zhichao; Liang, Jialiang; Huang, Wei; Jiang, Lin; Paul, Christian; Gao, Xiang; Alam, Perwez; Kanisicak, Onur; Xu, Meifeng; Wang, Yigang 2020. Immunomodulatory effects of mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of cardiac allograft rejection. Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.), , 1535370220978650

Alam, Perwez; Haile, Bereket; Arif, Mohammed; Pandey, Raghav; Rokvic, Miso; Nieman, Michelle; Maliken, Bryan D; Paul, Arghya; Wang, Yi-Gang; Sadayappan, Sakthivel; Ahmed, Rafeeq P H; Kanisicak, Onur 2019. Inhibition of Senescence-Associated Genes Rb1 and Meis2 in Adult Cardiomyocytes Results in Cell Cycle Reentry and Cardiac Repair Post-Myocardial Infarction. Journal of the American Heart Association, 8 15, e012089

Khalil, Hadi; Kanisicak, Onur; Vagnozzi, Ronald J.; Johansen, Anne Katrine; Maliken, Bryan D.; Prasad, Vikram; Boyer, Justin G.; Brody, Matthew J.; Schips, Tobias; Kilian, Katja K.; Correll, Robert N.; Kawasaki, Kunito; Nagata, Kazuhiro; Molkentin, Jeffery D. 2019. Cell-specific ablation of Hsp47 defines the collagen-producing cells in the injured heart JCI insight, 4 15, e128722

Fu, Xing; Khalil, Hadi; Kanisicak, Onur; Boyer, Justin G; Vagnozzi, Ronald J; Maliken, Bryan D; Sargent, Michelle A; Prasad, Vikram; Valiente-Alandi, Iñigo; Blaxall, Burns C; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2018. Specialized fibroblast differentiated states underlie scar formation in the infarcted mouse heart. The Journal of clinical investigation, ,

Maliken, Bryan D; Kanisicak, Onur; Karch, Jason; Khalil, Hadi; Fu, Xing; Boyer, Justin G; Prasad, Vikram; Zheng, Yi; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2018. Gata4-Dependent Differentiation of c-Kit+ Derived Endothelial Cells Underlies Artefactual Cardiomyocyte Regeneration in the Heart. Circulation, ,

van Berlo, Jop H; Kanisicak, Onur; Maillet, Marjorie; Vagnozzi, Ronald J; Karch, Jason; Lin, Suh-Chin J; Middleton, Ryan C; Marbán, Eduardo; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2018. van Berlo et al. reply. Nature, 555 7697, E18

Accornero, Federica; Schips, Tobias G; Petrosino, Jennifer M; Gu, Shan-Qing; Kanisicak, Onur; van Berlo, Jop H; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2017. BEX1 is an RNA-dependent mediator of cardiomyopathy. Nature communications, 8 1, 1875

Goldberg-Smith, Pam 2017. Onur Kanisicak: From Toy Tinkerer to Scientific Innovator. Circulation research, 121 11, 1219-1220

He L, Huang X, Kanisicak O, Li Y, Wang Y, Li Y, Pu W, Liu Q, Zhang H, Tian X, Zhao H, Liu X, Zhang S, Nie Y, Hu S, Miao X, Wang QD, Wang F, Chen T, Xu Q, Lui KO, Molkentin JD, Zhou B. 2017. Preexisting endothelial cells mediate cardiac neovascularization after injury. J Clin Invest., 127(8):2968-2981 8, 2968-2981

Kanisicak, Onur; Vagnozzi, Ronald J; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2017. Identity Crisis for Regenerative Cardiac cKit+ Cells. Circulation research, 121 10, 1130-1132

Karch, Jason; Schips, Tobias G; Maliken, Bryan D; Brody, Matthew J; Sargent, Michelle A; Kanisicak, Onur; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2017. Autophagic cell death is dependent on lysosomal membrane permeability through Bax and Bak. eLife, 6 ,

Khalil H, Kanisicak O, Prasad V, Correll RN, Fu X, Schips T, Vagnozzi RJ, Liu R, Huynh T, Lee SJ, Karch J, Molkentin JD. 2017. Fibroblast-specific TGF-β-Smad2/3 signaling underlies cardiac fibrosis. J Clin Invest., 127(10):3770-3783 10, 3770-3783

Kanisicak, Onur; Khalil, Hadi; Ivey, Malina J; Karch, Jason; Maliken, Bryan D; Correll, Robert N; Brody, Matthew J; J Lin, Suh-Chin; Aronow, Bruce J; Tallquist, Michelle D; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2016. Genetic lineage tracing defines myofibroblast origin and function in the injured heart. Nature communications, 7 , 12260

Kanisicak, Onur; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2016. Applying Modern Transcriptomics to Interrogate the Human Cardiac Fibroblast. JACC. Basic to translational science, 1 7, 603-605

Tjondrokoesoemo A, Schips T, Kanisicak O, Sargent MA, Molkentin JD. 2016. Genetic overexpression of Serpina3n attenuates muscular dystrophy in mice. Hum Mol Genet., 15;25(6):1192-202 6, 1192-202

Tjondrokoesoemo, Andoria; Schips, Tobias G; Sargent, Michelle A; Vanhoutte, Davy; Kanisicak, Onur; Prasad, Vikram; Lin, Suh-Chin J; Maillet, Marjorie; Molkentin, Jeffery D 2016. Cathepsin S Contributes to the Pathogenesis of Muscular Dystrophy in Mice. The Journal of biological chemistry, 291 19, 9920-8

Vanhoutte D, Schips TG, Kwong JQ, Davis J, Tjondrokoesoemo A, Brody MJ, Sargent MA, Kanisicak O, Yi H, Gao QQ, Rabinowitz JE, Volk T, McNally EM, Molkentin JD. 2016. Thrombospondin expression in myofibers stabilizes muscle membranes. Elife, 26;5 26, e17589

Brody MJ, Schips TG, Vanhoutte D, Kanisicak O, Karch J, Maliken BD, Blair NS, Sargent MA, Prasad V, Molkentin JD. 2015. Dissection of Thrombospondin-4 Domains Involved in Intracellular Adaptive Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Responsive Signaling. Mol Cell Biol. , 36 1, 2-12

Karch J, Kanisicak O, Brody MJ, Sargent MA, Michael DM, Molkentin JD. 2015. Necroptosis Interfaces with MOMP and the MPTP in Mediating Cell Death. PLoS One., 10 6, e0130520

Accornero F, Kanisicak O, Tjondrokoesoemo A, Attia AC, McNally EM, Molkentin JD. 2014. Myofiber-specific inhibition of TGFβ signaling protects skeletal muscle from injury and dystrophic disease in mice. Hum Mol Genet., 23 25, 6903-15

van Berlo JH, Kanisicak O, Maillet M, Vagnozzi RJ, Karch J, Lin SC, Middleton RC, Marbán E, Molkentin JD. 2014. c-kit+ cells minimally contribute cardiomyocytes to the heart. Nature, 509 7500, 337-41

Braitsch CM, Kanisicak O, van Berlo JH, Molkentin JD, Yutzey KE. 2013. Differential expression of embryonic epicardial progenitor markers and localization of cardiac fibrosis in adult ischemic injury and hypertensive heart disease. J Mol Cell Cardiol., 65 65, 108-19

Kanisicak O, Mendez JJ, Yamamoto S, Yamamoto M, Goldhamer DJ. 2009. Progenitors of skeletal muscle satellite cells express the muscle determination gene, MyoD. Dev Biol., 332 1, 131-41

Yamamoto M, Shook NA, Kanisicak O, Yamamoto S, Wosczyna MN, Camp JR, Goldhamer DJ. 2009. A multifunctional reporter mouse line for Cre- and FLP-dependent lineage analysis. Genesis, 47 2, 107-14