• Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us
Cardiovascular

UCLA Cardiovascular Research Theme

Cardiovascular
  • Mission and Leadership
    • CV Theme Leadership
    • Unified Vision for UCLA Research Themes
  • Research Faculty
  • Research Programs
    • Vascular Biology
    • Cardiovascular Calcification
    • Cardiovascular Genomics and Systems Biology
    • Cardiac Repair, Regeneration, and Heart Failure
    • Atherosclerosis and Lipid biology
    • Arrhythymia, Sudden Cardiac Death, and Ion channel biology
    • Cardiac Development and Congenital Heart Disease
  • Clinical Investigations
    • Cardiovascular Research in Precision Health
    • Structural Cardiology
  • Seminars
    • CTSI Lecture Series
    • CV Theme Seminars
  • Core Services
    • CV Research Theme Small Animal Physiology Core
    • CV Research Theme Cardiac Muscle Cell Core
    • TCGB core
    • Molecular Shared Screening Resource
    • Confocal Microscopy and Imaging
  • Support Science
  • Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us

UCLA Cardiovascular Research Theme

Marlin Touma, MD, PhD

Marlin Touma, MD, PhD 
Email: mtouma@mednet.ucla.edu
Lab website →

Congenital Heart Defects · Neonatal Heart Maturation · Developmental Genomics 

Dr. Touma is a physician scientist specialized in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Developmental Genomics in the context of neonatal/congenital heart defects. She is the lead investigator of the UCLA Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) Research Program and the founder and principal investigator of the Neonatal/Congenital Heart Laboratory and the BioCore for Congenital Heart Defects at UCLA, which serves as a hub for basic science discoveries and translational applications in collaboration with the UCLA Institute of Precision Health and the Cardiovascular Theme.

Dr. Touma performed the first genome-wide analysis of chamber specific transcriptome in neonatal murine heart. She discovered numerous novel regulatory long noncoding RNAs, and identified their orthologs in human CHD hearts. She and her team, which include medical students and research trainees, have elucidated the mechanisms by which a novel lncRNA-PPP1R1B regulates myogenic differentiation of cardiac and skeletal myocytes using human iPSCs derived cardiomyocytes. They have also discovered a novel gene-environment regulatory circuit, involving Wnt11 signaling and hypoxia, which dictates neonatal heart chamber maturation. A recent discovery by the team is the identification of a causal gene related to ciliopathy in a rare form of congenital cardiomyopathy.

Publications

  • A Path to Implement Precision Child Health Cardiovascular Medicine. Touma M*, Reemtsen B, Halnon N, Alejos J, Finn JP, Nelson SF, Wang Y. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2017 Jun 1;4:36.
  • Gene-Environment Regulatory Circuits of Right Ventricular Pathology in Tetralogy of Fallot. Zhao Y, Kang X, Gao F, Guzman A, Lau RP, Biniwale R, Wadehra M, Reemtsen B, Garg M, Halnon N, Quintero-Rivera F, Van Arsdell G, Coppola G, Nelson SF, Touma M*; UCLA Congenital Heart Defects BioCore Faculty. J Mol Med (Berl). 2019 Dec;97(12):1711-1722.
  • Ppp1r1b-lncRNA Inhibits PRC2 at Myogenic Regulatory Genes to Promote Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Development in Mouse and Human. Kang X, Zhao Y, Van Arsdell G, Nelson SF, Touma M*. RNA. 2020 Apr;26(4):481- 491.

Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare
Top U.S. Medical Schools in Primary Care
  • Giving
  • Contact Us
  • Diversity
  • Emergency
  • Maps & Directions
  • Publications
  • Directory
  • Report Misconduct
  • Volunteer
  • Biomed Library
  • Newsroom
  • Smoke-Free
  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
  • Report Broken Links
Top U.S. Medical Schools in Research
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare