Park Lab Interests

The main interest of my lab is to study the biology of vascular endothelial cells.  With mouse genetics and embryonic stem (ES) cells, we are trying to unravel molecular mechanisms governing 1) the generation/differentiation of endothelial cell (progenitors) in developing embryos and 2) the process of neovascularization in pathophysiologic conditions. We are also interested in endothelial cell generation from human ES or iPS cells.

Lab Members

Representative Publications

• *Lee, J.Y., *Park, C., Lee, E., Kim, H., Kim, P., Seok H. Yun, S.H.,  and Yoon, Y.S. Podoplanin-expressing Cells Derived from Bone Marrow Play a Crucial Role in Postnatal Lymphatic Neovascularization. Circulation (In Press) * These authors equally contributed to this work.
• *Ma, Y., *Park, C., Zhao, H., Oduro, K.A., Tu, X., Long, F., Allen, P.M.,Teitelbaum, S.L., and Choi, K.Defects in osteoblast function but no changes in long term repopulating potential of hematopoietic stem cells in a mouse chronic inflammatory arthritis model. Blood 114:4402-4410, 2009. * These authors equally contributed to this work.
• *Lugus, J.J., *Park, C., Ma, Y., and Choi, K. Both primitive and definitive blood cells are derived from Flk-1+ mesoderm.  Blood 113:563-566, 2009. * These authors equally contributed to this work.
• *Lee, D., *Park, C., Lee, H., Lugus, J., Kim, S. K., Arentson, E., Chung, Y.S., Gomez, G., Kyba, M., Lin, S., Janknecht, R., Lim, D.S., and Choi, K. ER71 acts downstream of BMP, Notch, and Wnt signaling in blood and vessel progenitor specification. Cell Stem Cell 2:497-507, 2008. * These authors equally contributed to this work.
• Sumanas, S., Gomez, G., Zhao, Y., Park, C., Choi, K., and Lin, S. Interplay between Etsrp/ER71, scl and alk8 signaling controls endothelial and myeloid cell formation. Blood 111:4500-4510, 2008.
• Gupta, A., Guerin-Peyrou, T.G., Sharma, G.G., Park, C., Agarwal, M., Ganju, R.K., Choi, K., Sukumar, S., Pandita, R, K., Ludwig, T., and Pandita, T.K. Mammalian ortholog of Drosophila MOF that acetylates histone H4 lysine16 is essential for embryogenesis and oncogenesis. Mol. Cell. Biol.  28:397-409, 2008.
• Park, C., Lavine, K., Mishina, Y., Deng, C., Ornitz, D.M., and Choi, K.Bone morphogenetic protein receptor 1A signaling is dispensable for hematopoietic development but essential for vessel and atrioventricular endocardial cushion formation. Development 133:3473-3484, 2006.
• Lavine, K.J., White, A.C., Park, C., Smith, C.S., Choi, K., Long, F., Hui, C., and Ornitz, D.M. Fibroblast growth factor signals regulate a wave of Hedgehog activation that is essential for coronary vascular development. Genes Dev. 20:1651-1666, 2006.
• Wolins, N.E., Quaynor, B.K., Skinner, J.R., Tzekov, A., Park, C., Choi, K., and Bickel, P.E. OP9 mouse stromal cells rapidly differentiate into adipocytes: Characterization of a useful new model of adipogenesis.  J. Lipid Res. 47:450-460, 2006.
• Zhang, W.J., Park, C., Arentson, E., and Choi, K. Modulation of hematopoietic and endothelial cell differentiation from mouse embryonic stem cells by different culture conditions. Blood 105:111-114, 2005.
• *Park C., *Afrikanova, I., Chung, Y.S., Zhang, W.J., Arentson, E., Fong, Gh G., Rosendahl, A., and Choi, K. A hierarchical order of factors in the generation of FLK1- and SCL-expressing hematopoietic and endothelial progenitors from embryonic stem cells. Development 131:2749-2762, 2004.* These authors equally contributed to this work.
• Johnson, L. D., Grass, J. D., Park, C., Im, H., Choi, K., and Bresnick, E. H. Highly restricted localization of RNA polymerase II to upstream hypersensitive sites of an erythroid-specific chromatin domain. Mol. Cell. Biol. 23:6484-6493, 2003.
• Im H., Park, C., Feng, Q., Johnson, K. D., Kiekhaefer C. M., Choi K., Zhang, Y., and Bresnick, E. H. Dynamic regulation of histone H3 methylated at lysine 79 within a tissue-specific chromatin domain. J. Biol. Chem. 278:18346-18352, 2003.
• Hur, E. M., Son, M., Lee, O. H., Choi, Y. B., Park, C., Lee, H., and Yun, Y. LIME, a novel transmembrane adaptor protein, associates with p56lck and mediates T cell activation. J. Exp. Med. 198:1463-1473, 2003.
• Won, J., Hur, Y. G., Hur, E. M., Park, S. H., Kang, M. A., Choi, Y., Park, C., Lee, K. H., and Yun, Y.Rosmarinic acid inhibits TCR-induced T cell activation and proliferation in an Lck-dependent manner. Eur. J. Immunol. 33:870-879, 2003.
• Park, C., Choi, Y. B., and Yun, Y. Son of sevenless binds to the SH3 domain of  src-type tyrosine kinase. Mol. Cells 8:518-523, 1998.