Peipei Ping, PhD

Peipei Ping, Ph.D., is a Professor of Physiology, Medicine/Cardiology, and Bioinformatics in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Zhejiang University, China in 1985. Mentored by Dr. Paul C. Johnson, Dr. Ping received her Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Physiology at University of Arizona in 1990. Subsequently, she completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. James E. Faber’s Vascular Biology laboratory at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a second postdoctoral training with Dr. H. Kirk Hammond at UCSD in Molecular Cardiology and translational research. Under the mentorship of Dr. H. Kirk Hammond, she made remarkable contributions in elucidating the expression and signaling of diverse G protein receptor kinases and beta-adrenergic receptors in the normal and injured heart, which resulted publications in high-impact journals as J Clin Invest (1995) and Nature Medicine (1996). In 1996, Dr. Ping accepted a position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Department of physiology/Division of Cardiology at University of Louisville where she worked closely with Dr. Roberto Bolli, and pioneered a functional proteomics approach to identify the protein signaling modalities in ischemic/reperfusion injuries and cardioprotection. In 1998, her research group was the first to identify the subproteomes containing PKCε that are responsible for signaling mediation of cardioprotection. Dr. Ping was promoted as Associate Professor in 2000.

In 2002, Dr. Ping was recruited to UCLA as a Full Professor of Physiology, Medicine/Cardiology, and Bioinformatics in the David Geffen School of Medicine. Since joining UCLA, she led an investigator team and successfully competed for several major NIH awards. During this time, Dr. Ping served as the director of the NHLBI Program Project on Myocardial Ischemia Injury and Protection (2004-2011), International Consortium of Proteome Biology in Cardiovascular Medicine (2010-current), NHLBI Proteomics Center at UCLA (2010-2015), NIH BD2K Center of Excellence for Biomedical Computing at UCLA (2014-current), and NIH BD2K Centers-Coordination Center (2015-current).

Over the past 2 decades, Dr. Ping has made significant contributions to cardiovascular research, proteomics phenotyping, and Big Data science. She characterized the cardioprotective role of PKCε as well as other underlying mechanisms in cardiac injury and protection; pioneered the conceptualization and development of functional proteomics approaches to characterize signaling pathways in the heart; advanced proteomics/metabolomics technologies, including model systems, quantitative analyses, PTM studies, protein spatial/temporal dynamics, and omics data-driven biomarker discovery. Recently, she has become a critical player in the nation-wide initiative of Big Data Science and tirelessly promotes Big Data science in clinical translation for precision medicine. To date, Dr. Ping has published 200+ original articles or reviews in peer-reviews journals, including New Eng J Med, J Clin Invest, and Circulation.

Dr. Ping is strongly committed to supporting and mentoring students. As a faculty member with joint appointments in Physiology, Medicine/Cardiology, and Bioinformatics, she has been instrumental in creating a wide spectrum of educational programs, including high school internship programs, diversity-focused programs, graduate degree programs and physician scientist training programs. Over the past 20 years, in addition to large classroom-based lecturing in both the UCLA School of Medicine and School of Engineering, Dr. Ping has mentored 70+ postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Each is playing an important role in many aspects of our society today; 16 have achieved independent positions in academia and many have successful careers in both public and private sectors. Recently, she worked with Dr. Karol Watson to create a physician scientist training program in data science, and under her leadership, the NIH BD2K Center of Excellence at UCLA has collaborated with the CTSA Program at UCLA to engage physician investigators in data analytical tool development. She also serves as core faculty in training graduate students in the Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics programs at UCLA. Overall, Dr. Ping is committed to cross-disciplinary training that integrates computational biology, bioinformatics, computer science, statistics, and medical informatics in order to equip future investigators with skills required for the digital era of biomedicine.

Dr. Ping has served and is currently serving on multiple Editorial Boards and Publications Committees, including Circulation (2001-current; AE: 2016-present), Circulation Research (1999-2004), AJP (1999-2013; Consulting Editor: 2001-2005; AE: 2004-2005), JMCC (2000-current), Journal of Proteome Research (Editorial Scientific Advisory Board: 2007-2009), Proteomics (2007-2009), Clinical Proteomics (2009-2012), and HUPO Publications Committee (Chair: 2005-2010). Furthermore, Dr. Ping dedicatedly involves in many professional organizations and NIH grant study sections; notably, she is the president-elect of International Society of Heart Research (ISHR, 2015-2018), the Founding Council Member of Human Proteome Organization (HUPO, 2001), and a regular member for NIH grant review study section of CCHF (Cardiac Contractility, Hypertrophy, and Failure, 2011-current), NHLBI Intramural Program Review Committee (2015, 2016), NIGMS PPG SEP (Member, 2011-2012), and NIDDK SEP on Collaborative Interdisciplinary Team Science (Chairperson, 2009, panel member, 2012, 2015).

Research Interests

Our overall research interest is to advance cardiovascular medicine through a better understanding of the regulatory principles of cardiac proteins on a global scale. We develop data science methods and analytical approaches to interrogate how protein dynamics orchestrate higher physiological functions in normal and diseased hearts.

Data Science and Bioinformatics Platforms. Our lab hosts the NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Center of Excellence for Big Data Computing at UCLA. We develop new data science solutions and software to promote community participation in the analysis and annotation of large-scale biomedical data. Primary research interests:

• Integrated proteomics knowledgebase and data access infrastructure (COPaKB)
• Gene Wiki as a portal for cardiovascular research knowledge annotations.
• Bioinformatics software tools for next-generation proteomics applications.
• Machine learning and text-mining tools to create computable info-boxes from multidimensional data, including electronic medical records.
• Indexing efforts to render digital objects (data/tools) in compliance with FAIR Principle.

Cardiovascular Proteomics and Metabolomics. We are particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms of heart diseases and injuries. By combining multi-scale molecular parameters, we interrogate the large-scale alterations of protein expression and dynamics during disease development to infer novel disease proteins. As a host to the NIH NHLBI Proteomics Center at UCLA, we develop advanced mass spectrometry techniques to understand the organization and functions of cardiac proteomes in healthy and diseased hearts. A major emphasis is to expand the number of proteome parameters one can observe on a large scale, including quantification of proteome-wide post-translational modifications, localizations, and temporal dynamics in order to detect “hidden” disease signatures. Primary research interests:

• Large-scale analysis of protein turnover rates in mouse, human, and drosophila
• Plasma metabolite profiles of healthy human subjects and heart failure patients
• Protein phosphorylation signaling in cardiac mitochondria.
• Cloud-based bioinformatics platform for analysis, annotation, and integration of large-scale proteomics and metabolomics datasets (MetProt)

Mitochondrial Biology of Heart Diseases.The Ping lab has a longstanding emphasis on understanding the regulation of cardiac mitochondria in energetics and metabolism, and their roles in the development of heart diseases. We utilize cutting-edge proteomics and biochemistry methods to understand the signaling pathways and organization of cardiac mitochondrial proteome in the heart, with particular interest in the regulatory relationships between protein expression level, organelle functions, and cardiac phenotypes. Primary research interests:

• Proteome design and function of cardiac mitochondria
• Mitochondrial anatomy and functions following left ventricular assist device support
• Signaling, regulation, and functional dynamics of protein degradation networks.

Honors and Awards

• 2015 American Physiological Society (APS) Robert M. Berne Distinguished Lectureship
• 2013 Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) Distinguished Service Award
• 2012 American Heart Association (AHA) Distinguished Lectureships: Thomas W. Smith Memorial Lecture
• 2010-2020 NIH/NHLBI MERIT Award
• 2009 Research Achievement Award CNPN (Canadian National Proteomics Network)
• 2001 Provost’s Award for Exemplary Advising (University of Louisville)
• 2000 University Scholar (University of Louisville)
• 1998 Young Investigator Award (AHA)
• 1995 Melvin L. Marcus Young Investigator Award Finalist (AHA)
• 1995 Young Investigator Award Finalist (ISHR)
• 1994 Young Investigator Travel Award (AFCR)
• 1993 Young Investigator Award (AHA)
• 1993 Henry Christian Memorial Award (AFCR)
• 1993 Trainee Investigator Award (AAP, ASCI, AFCR)
• 1992 Caroline tum Suden Professional Opportunity Award (APS)
• 1990 Excellence in Research Award (AHA)
• 2009-current Fellow of International Society for Heart Research (FISHR)
• 2001-current Fellow of American Physiological Society
• 1998-current Fellow of American Heart Association (FAHA)
• Research Interests & Expertise
• Integrated proteomics knowledgebase and data access infrastructure (COPaKB)
• Gene Wiki as a portal for cardiovascular research knowledge annotations.
• Bioinformatics software tools for next-generation proteomics applications.
• Machine learning and text-mining tools to create computable info-boxes from multidimensional data, including electronic medical records.
• Indexing efforts to render digital objects (data/tools) in compliance with FAIR Principle.

Department: Physiology

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