Area of interests: Heart failure, Heart development, Genetics, Epigenetics. The laboratory employs techniques of molecular biology, cell biology, developmental biology, and mouse genetics to determine the fundamental mechanism of cardiovascular diseases. Our goal is to define the molecular mechanisms underlying cardiomyopathy and heart failure and translate bench findings to clinical applications. We are establishing an epigenetic framework by which cardiac stress activates epigenomic changes in the heart to reprogram gene expression, causing cardiomyopathy. We have so far identified several new chromatin regulators that are stress-regulated to control cardiac hypertrophy and failure. These regulators include chromatin-remodeling factors, histone and DNA modifying enzymes, transcription co-factors, and long non-coding RNA. The findings were published in high-quality journals with regards to chromatin, signaling, and transcription mechanisms of heart development and disease. Understanding the stress-activated epigenetic mechanisms that underlie heart failure will facilitate drug discovery process and the development of epigenetic therapy for heart failure.