潘雅欣教授 - 生物醫學學院

潘雅欣教授

助理教授

DPhil (Oxon), BSc Hons (USyd)

39435750

ellen.poon@cuhk.edu.hk

Room 226A, Lo Kwee-Seong Integrated Biomedical Sciences Building, Area 39, CUHK

ORCID

个人简介

Prof. POON Ngar Yun Ellen (潘雅欣) received her Bachelor of Science degree with First Class Honours and the University Medal from the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Sydney. She was subsequently awarded a prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue her DPhil at the University of Oxford, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Following her doctoral studies, she received the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her research at the University of California, San Francisco. In February 2019, she joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong as an Assistant Professor.

Prof. Poon’s research centres on the use of human pluripotent stem cell-derived (hPSC-) cardiomyocytes for disease modelling and drug screening. Immaturity of hPSC- cardiomyocytes limits the utility of these cells for research and therapy. Through multi-omics approaches, Prof. Poon has uncovered novel regulatory mechanisms that promote the development of cardiomyocytes with adult-like mitochondrial and metabolic characteristics.

Currently, her work focuses on leveraging the hPSC-cardiomyocyte platform and complementary animal models to study human cardiac diseases, investigate mechanisms of cardiac injury, and identify cardioprotective agents. Her research has been published in leading journals such as Cell Research and Cardiovascular Research, and has led to multiple patent applications.

研究兴趣

Precision medicine: using patient specific cardiomyocytes to investigate cardiac disorders
Drug induced cardiotoxicity
Acute cardiac injury
Stem cell cardiac biology
Mitochondria and metabolism
Omics technology for cardiac maturation and disease modelling

著作选录

Cheng HK, Lai A, Kwok M, Yan BP, *Poon EN. Cardiovascular Safety of COVID-19 Treatments: A Disproportionality Analysis of Adverse Event Reports from the WHO VigiBase. Infectious Diseases and Therapy, 2025; 14:2445–2463.
*Mok BW, Kwok M, Li HS, Ling L, Lai A, Yan B, Law CT, Yeung CH, Zhang AJ, Tam RC, Kukic A, Cremin CJ, Zhang Y, Long T, Kang Z, Luo R, Leung KT, Li AM, Lui G, Tsui SK, Chan JF, To KK, Chan PKS, Yan BP, Chen H, *Poon EN. SARS-CoV-2 variants divergently infect and damage cardiomyocytes in vitro and in vivo. Cell Biosci. 2024;14:101.
Zhang C, Chan KYY, Ng WH, Cheung JTK, Sun Q, Wang H, Chung PY, Cheng FWT, Leung AWK, Zhang XB, Lee PY, Fok SP, Lin G, Poon ENY, Feng JH, Tang YL, Luo XQ, Huang LB, Kang W, Tang PMK, Huang J, Chen C, Dong J, Mejstrikova E, Cai J, Liu Y, Shen S, Yang JJ, Yuen PMP, Li CK, Leung KT. CD9 shapes glucocorticoid sensitivity in pediatric B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Haematologica. 2024; 2024;109:2833-2845.
Li S, Yan B, Wu B, Su J, Lu J, Lam TW, *Boheler KR, *Poon EN, *Luo R. Integrated modeling framework reveals co-regulation of transcription factors, miRNAs and lncRNAs on cardiac developmental dynamics. Stem cell research & therapy. 2023;14(1):247.
Wu SCM, Zhu M, Chik SCC, Kwok M, Javed A, Law L, Chan S, Boheler KR, Liu YP, *Chan GCF, *Poon EN. Adipose tissue-derived human mesenchymal stromal cells can better suppress complement lysis, engraft and inhibit acute graft-versus-host disease in mice. Stem cell research & therapy. 2023;14(1):167.
Kwok M, Lee C, Li HS, Deng R, Tsoi C, Ding Q, Tsang SY, Leung KT, Yan BP, *Poon EN. Remdesivir induces persistent mitochondrial and structural damage in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Cardiovasc Res. 2022;118(12):2652-64.
Wang H, Chan KYY, Cheng CK, Ng MHL, Lee PY, Cheng FWT, Lam GKS, Chow TW, Ha SY, Chiang AKS, Leung WH, Leung AYH, Wang CC, Zhang T, Zhang XB, So CC, Yuen YP, Sun Q, Zhang C, Xu Y, Cheung JTK, Ng WH, Tang PM, Kang W, To KF, Lee WYW, Wong RSM, Poon ENY, Zhao Q, Huang J, Chen C, Yuen PMP, Li CK, Leung AWK, Leung KT. Pharmacogenomic Profiling of Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia to Identify Therapeutic Vulnerabilities and Inform Functional Precision Medicine. Blood Cancer Discov. 2022;3(6):516-35.
Tsoi C, Deng R, Kwok M, Yan B, Lee C, Li HS, Ma CHY, Luo R, Leung KT, Chan GC, Chow LM, *Poon EN. Temporal Control of the WNT Signaling Pathway During Cardiac Differentiation Impacts Upon the Maturation State of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes. Front Mol Biosci. 2022;9:714008.
Wu BB, Leung KT, *Poon EN. Mitochondrial-Targeted Therapy for Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity. International journal of molecular sciences. 2022;23(3).
Chan K, Zhang C, Wong YTS, Zhang XB, Wang CC, Ng WH, Fok SP, Tang PM, Kang W, Feng B, Poon ENY, Lee KY, Lee CK, Chen C, Leung TY, Ng MH, To KF, Wang H, Lam HS, Ng PC, Yuen PM, Li K, Leung AWK, Li CK, Leung KT. R4 RGS proteins suppress engraftment of human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells by modulating SDF-1/CXCR4 signaling. Blood Adv. 2021.
Boheler KR, *Poon EN. Cell surface markers for immunophenotyping human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Pflugers Arch. 2021;473(7):1023-39.
*Poon EN, Luo XL, Webb SE, Yan B, Zhao R, Wu SCM, Yang Y, Zhang P, Bai H, Shao J, Chan CM, Chan GC, Tsang SY, Gundry RL, Yang HT, *Boheler KR. The cell surface marker CD36 selectively identifies matured, mitochondria-rich hPSC-cardiomyocytes. Cell Res. 2020;30(7):626-9.
Waas M, Weerasekera R, Kropp EM, Romero-Tejeda M, Poon EN, Boheler KR, Burridge PW, Gundry RL. Are These Cardiomyocytes? Protocol Development Reveals Impact of Sample Preparation on the Accuracy of Identifying Cardiomyocytes by Flow Cytometry. Stem cell reports. 2019;12(2):395-410.
Gu X, Yeung SY, Chadda A, Poon ENY, Boheler KR, Hsing IM. Organic Electrochemical Transistor Arrays for In Vitro Electrophysiology Monitoring of 2D and 3D Cardiac Tissues. Adv Biosyst. 2019;3(2):e1800248.
*Poon EN, Hao B, Guan D, Jun Li M, Lu J, Yang Y, Wu B, Wu SC, Webb SE, Liang Y, Miller AL, Yao X, Wang J, *Yan B, Boheler KR. Integrated transcriptomic and regulatory network analyses identify microRNA-200c as a novel repressor of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte differentiation and maturation. Cardiovasc Res. 2018;114(6):894-906
Lu J, Boheler KR, Jiang L, Chan CW, Tse WW, Keung W, Poon EN, Li RA, Yao X. Polycystin-2 Plays an Essential Role in Glucose Starvation-Induced Autophagy in Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes. Stem Cells. 2018;36(4):501-13.
Wang J, Cui C, Nan H, Yu Y, Xiao Y, Poon E, Yang G, Wang X, Wang C, Li L, Boheler KR, Ma X, Cheng X, Ni Z, Chen M. Graphene Sheet-Induced Global Maturation of Cardiomyocytes Derived from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. ACS applied materials & interfaces. 2017;9(31):25929-40.
Chen Y, Huang L, Dai X, Tian Q, Yu M, Agheb M, Chan NC, Poon E, Guo Z, Boheler KR, Wu H. Facile formation of a microporous chitosan hydrogel based on self-crosslinking. J Mater Chem B. 2017;5(14):9291-9
Poon E, Keung W, Liang Y, Ramalingam R, Yan B, Zhang S, Chopra A, Moore J, Herren A, Lieu DK, Wong HS, Weng Z, Wong OT, Lam YW, Tomaselli GF, Chen C, Boheler KR, Li RA. Proteomic Analysis of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived, Fetal, and Adult Ventricular Cardiomyocytes Reveals Pathways Crucial for Cardiac Metabolism and Maturation. Circ Cardiovasc Genet^#. 2015;8(3):427-36.
Wang Y, Li ZC, Zhang P, Poon E, Kong CW, Boheler KR, Huang Y, Li RA, Yao X. Nitric Oxide-cGMP-PKG Pathway Acts on Orai1 to Inhibit the Hypertrophy of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes. Stem Cells. 2015;33(10):2973-84.
Zhu R, Blazeski A, Poon E, Costa KD, Tung L, Boheler KR. Physical developmental cues for the maturation of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Stem cell research & therapy. 2014;5(5):117.
Poon E, Yan B, Zhang S, Rushing S, Keung W, Ren L, Lieu DK, Geng L, Kong CW, Wang J, Wong HS, Boheler KR, Li RA. Transcriptome-guided functional analyses reveal novel biological properties and regulatory hierarchy of human embryonic stem cell-derived ventricular cardiomyocytes crucial for maturation. PLoS One. 2013;8(10):e77784.
Poon E, Kong CW, Li RA. Human pluripotent stem cell-based approaches for myocardial repair: from the electrophysiological perspective. Mol Pharm. 2011;8(5):1495-504.

*Corresponding or co-corresponding author

研究资助

General Research Fund [PI; 01/1/2026– 31/12/2028]: Characterising the DNA damage response as a therapeutic target for doxorubicin induced cardiotoxicity
Health and Medical Research Fund [PI; 01/07/2023 – 30/06/2026]: Investigating cardiotoxicity induced by antiviral therapeutics using in vitro hiPSC cardiomyocyte and in vivo mouse model
Early Career Scheme [PI; 01/01/2022– 30/06/2025]: Mitochondrial and genotoxic stress-induced senescence as a mechanistic contributor to doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in humans
Sun Chieh Yeh Heart Foundation Research Grant [PI; 01/01/2023 – 31/12/2023]: Mechanistic Examination of Remdesivir Induced Cardiotoxicity, Sun Chieh Yeh Heart Foundation
Health and Medical Research Fund [PI; 01/11/2021 – 30/10/2025]: Selectively targeting implanted human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes to undergo proliferation as a treatment for myocardial infarction
Health and Medical Research Fund [PI; 01/07/2019 – 31/12/2022]: Exploring novel therapeutic approaches for doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity using a metabolically-advanced and patient-specific human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte model
Health and Medical Research Fund [PI; 01/08/2016 – 31/01/2020]: Identification of the optimal source of human mesenchymal stromal cells for the treatment of acute graft-versus-host disease under a clinical-grade ex-vivo culture system