Juan Qin, PhD, (pronounced “JOO-anh CHEEN”) grew up in Anhui Province, China in a small mountain village that was so remote that neighboring villages each spoke their own dialect. “We had very limited access to information, and people around me got cancer without receiving access to any treatment,” she said. “That inspired me to want to become a scientist who would develop new drugs to conquer cancer.”
Dr. Qin is now an associate professional researcher at UCSF in the lab of physician-scientist Javid Moslehi, MD, chief of the section of Cardiology-Oncology and Immunology in the division of Cardiology. Dr. Qin earned her doctorate in cell biology and cancer biology at Nankai University. During graduate school, she studied genetic dysregulations associated with structural disruption of the centrosome, a part of the cell which plays a key role in cell division. She identified two genes involved with cell division and cell migration – two main drivers of cancer growth and metastasis.
She published three first-author papers and nine co-author papers on this theme during graduate school. But during the last few months of her PhD program, Dr. Qin started a new project: culturing and directing differentiation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. This involves genetically reprogramming non-embryonic cells, such as skin cells, into cells which regain the ability to turn into any cell type in the body.
She learned how to coax iPS cells into fat cells and neurons. Then she attempted to make heart muscle cells, also known as cardiomyocytes, by culturing iPS cells in a Petri dish for 10 days and adding some factors. “When I looked under the microscope, there were about a million cells in the Petri dish, all beating at the same speed,” said Dr. Qin. “I could feel the power of generating life in a dish. I thought, ‘Wow, this is so exciting! Maybe I can create something to repair hearts.’ That changed my life!”
Reining in the Scarring Response
After completing her PhD, she decided to pursue a postdoctoral scholarship position in cardiac repair at UCLA. She studied the role of a protein called GPNMB, which is more prevalent in a type of white blood cell called macrophages following cardiac injury. After a heart attack, macrophages help clear away dead cells and debris, while fibroblasts help form scar tissue to repair damaged tissue. But sometimes these processes go into overdrive. “If there’s too much chronic inflammation, it leads to cardiac fibrosis and heart failure,” said Dr. Qin. “We found that cells expressing GPNMB can infiltrate the injured area and interact with cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts, but if we are able to inhibit this process, we can limit additional damage to cardiomyocytes and prevent heart failure.”
During that postdoc appointment, Dr. Qin added to her existing skill set, learning about EKGs, echocardiograms, preclinical animal models, and bioinformatics. She also learned how to do single-cell RNA sequencing, a relatively new technique. Unlike bulk RNA sequencing, in which researchers take a tissue sample, grind it up, and study the collective gene expressions, single-cell RNA sequencing allows them to determine which gene expressions are upregulated or downregulated in a single cell. This is critical to better understanding many fundamental mechanisms, including how different cell types communicate with one another.
Weaving Together her Passions
She enjoyed learning these new skills, and wondered if there was a way to integrate all of her scientific interests as she progressed in her career. “I wanted to combine my PhD training in oncology and my postdoc experience in cardiology, but it was hard – heart cancer is very rare,” said Dr. Qin.
On a whim, one day she Googled “cardiology oncology.” “I didn’t expect that there would be a listing called ‘cardio-oncology,’ but I found a program in that area which was pretty new,” said Dr. Qin. “It focuses on cancer patients who develop cardiotoxicity from cancer treatments, including new cancer immunotherapies. Today, with improved cancer treatments, many more cancer patients survive, but eventually develop cardiovascular disease.”
She reached out to Dr. Moslehi, MD, founding director of the cardio-oncology program at Vanderbilt University who was later recruited to UCSF as the founding director of the section of Cardio-Oncology and Immunology and the William Grossman, MD Distinguished Professor in Cardiology. Dr. Moslehi is one of the pioneers of this burgeoning field, and the first to identify immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-myocarditis, a novel, potentially serious condition affecting a small number of patients who receive these powerful new immunotherapy drugs.
“When I read the introduction to Dr. Moslehi’s program at Vanderbilt, I thought, ‘Wow, this is perfect for me!’” recalled Dr. Qin. “I was very excited and applied immediately. I wrote him an email to express my interest, and he responded to me within five minutes – on a Sunday afternoon!”