Email

wehrens@bcm.edu

Positions

Juanita P. Quigley Endowed Chair in Cardiology

Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States

Professor

Molec.Physiology/Wehrens
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX, US

Director

Cardiovascular Research Institute
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, United States

Professor

Medicine
Cardiology
Baylor College of Medicine

Addresses

BCM-Jewish Institute for Research (Office)

Room: BCMD-510D
Houston, TX, 77030
United States

BCM-Jewish Institute for Research (Lab)

Room: BCMD-510D
Houston, TX, 77030
United States

Education

M.D. from Maastricht University

01/2001 - Maastricht, Netherlands

Ph.D. from Maastricht University

01/2002 - Maastricht, Netherlands

Professional Interests

• Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Cardiovascular Sciences
• Human Disease
• Molecular mechanisms and mouse models of cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure
• Intracellular calcium homeostasis
• New drug development
• Cardiac gene therapy

Websites

Selected Publications

• Alsina KM, Hulsurkar M, Brandenburg S, Kownatski-Danger D, Lenz C, Urlaub H, Abu-Taha I, Kamler M, Chiang DY, Lahiri SK, Reynolds JO, Quick SP, Scott L Jr, Word TA, Gelves MD, Heck AJR, Li N, Dobrev D, Lehnart SE, Wehrens XHT. " Loss of Protein Phosphatase 1 Regulatory Subunit PPP1R3A Promotes Atrial Fibrillation " Circulation. 2019 ; 140 (8) : 681-93.
  Pubmed PMID: 31185731.
• Ni L, Scott L Jr, Campbell HM, Pan X, Alsina KM, Reynolds J, Philippen LE, Hulsurkar M, Lagor WR, Li N, Wehrens XHT.. " Atrial-Specific Gene Delivery Using an Adeno-Associated Viral Vector " Circ Res. 2019 ; 124 (2) : 256-62.
  Pubmed PMID: 30582449.
• Pan X, Philippen L, Lahiri SK, Lee C, Park SH, Word TA, Li N, Jarrett KE, Gupta R, Reynolds JO, Lin J, Bao G, Lagor WR, Wehrens XHT. " In Vivo RyR2 Editing Corrects Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia. " Circ Res. 2019 Sep 28;
• Yao C, Veleva T, Scott L, Cao S, Li L, Chen G, Jeyabal P, Pan X, Alsina KM, Abu-Taha I, Ghezelbash S, Reynolds CL, Shen YH, LeMaire SA, Schmitz W, Müller FU, El-Armouche A, Eissa TN, Beeton C, Nattel S, Wehrens XHT, Dobrev D, Li N.. " Enhanced Cardiomyocyte NLRP3 Inflammasome Signaling Promotes Atrial Fibrillation " Circulation. 2018 Nov 18;
  Pubmed PMID: 29802206.
• Chiang DY*, Alsina KM*, Corradini E, Fitzpatrick M, Ni L, Lahiri SK, Reynolds JO, Pan X, Scott, L, Heck AJR, Wehrens XHT. " Rearrangement of the Protein Phosphatase 1 Interactome During Heart Failure Progression " Circulation. 2018 Oct ;
  Pubmed PMID: 29669786.
• Jeyaraj D, Haldar SM, Wan X, McCauley MD, Ripperger JA, Hu K, Lu Y, Eapen BL, Sharma N, Ficker E, Cutler MJ, Gulick J, Sanbe A, Robbins J, Demolombe S, Kondratov RV, Shea SA, Albrecht U, Wehrens XH, Rosenbaum DS, Jain MK. " Circadian rhythms govern cardiac repolarization and arrhythmogenesis. " Nature. 2012 Mar 1; 483 (7387) : 96-9.
  Pubmed PMID: 22367544.
• Respress JL, van Oort RJ, Li N, Rolim N, Dixit SS, Dealmeida A, Voigt N, Lawrence WS, Skapura DG, Skårdal K, Wisløff U, Wieland T, Ai X, Pogwizd SM, Dobrev D, Wehrens XH. " Role of RyR2 Phosphorylation at S2814 During Heart Failure Progression. " Circ. Res.. 2012 May 25; 110 (11) : 1474-83.
  Pubmed PMID: 22511749.
• Li N, Wang T, Wang W, Cutler MJ, Wang Q, Voigt N, Rosenbaum DS, Dobrev D, Wehrens XH. " Inhibition of CaMKII Phosphorylation of RyR2 Prevents Induction of Atrial Fibrillation in FKBP12.6 Knockout Mice. " Circ. Res.. 2012 Feb 3; 110 (3) : 465-70.
  Pubmed PMID: 22158709.
• Gurha P, Abreu-Goodger C, Wang T, Ramirez MO, Drumond AL, van Dongen S, Chen Y, Bartonicek N, Enright AJ, Lee B, Kelm RJ, Reddy AK, Taffet GE, Bradley A, Wehrens XH, Entman ML, Rodriguez A. " Targeted Deletion of MicroRNA-22 Promotes Stress-Induced Cardiac Dilation and Contractile Dysfunction. " Circulation. 2012 Jun 5; 125 (22) : 2751-61.
  Pubmed PMID: 22570371.
• van Oort RJ, Garbino A, Wang W, Dixit SS, Landstrom AP, Gaur N, De Almeida AC, Skapura DG, Rudy Y, Burns AR, Ackerman MJ, Wehrens XH. " Disrupted junctional membrane complexes and hyperactive ryanodine receptors after acute junctophilin knockdown in mice. " Circulation. 2011 Mar 8; 123 (9) : 979-88.
  Pubmed PMID: 21339484.
• van Oort RJ, McCauley MD, Dixit SS, Pereira L, Yang Y, Respress JL, Wang Q, De Almeida AC, Skapura DG, Anderson ME, Bers DM, Wehrens XH. " Ryanodine Receptor Phosphorylation by Calcium/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II Promotes Life-Threatening Ventricular Arrhythmias in Mice With Heart Failure. " Circulation. 2010 Dec 21; 122 (25) : 2669-79.
  Pubmed PMID: 21098440.
• Chelu MG, Sarma S, Sood S, Wang S, van Oort RJ, Skapura DG, Li N, Santonastasi M, Müller FU, Schmitz W, Schotten U, Anderson ME, Valderrábano M, Dobrev D, Wehrens XH. " Calmodulin kinase II-mediated sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ leak promotes atrial fibrillation in mice. " J. Clin. Invest.. 2009 Jul ; 119 (7) : 1940-51.
  Pubmed PMID: 19603549.
• Lehnart SE, Wehrens XH, Reiken S, Warrier S, Belevych AE, Harvey RD, Richter W, Jin SL, Conti M, Marks AR. " Phosphodiesterase 4D deficiency in the ryanodine-receptor complex promotes heart failure and arrhythmias. " Cell. 2005 Oct 7; 123 (1) : 25-35.
  Pubmed PMID: 16213210.
• Wehrens XH, Lehnart SE, Reiken SR, Deng SX, Vest JA, Cervantes D, Coromilas J, Landry DW, Marks AR. " Protection from cardiac arrhythmia through ryanodine receptor-stabilizing protein calstabin2. " Science. 2004 Apr 9; 304 (5668) : 292-6.
  Pubmed PMID: 15073377.
• Wehrens XH, Lehnart SE, Reiken SR, Marks AR. " Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II phosphorylation regulates the cardiac ryanodine receptor. " Circ. Res.. 2004 Apr 2; 94 (6) : e61-70.
  Pubmed PMID: 15016728.
• Wehrens XH, Lehnart SE, Huang F, Vest JA, Reiken SR, Mohler PJ, Sun J, Guatimosim S, Song LS, Rosemblit N, D'Armiento JM, Napolitano C, Memmi M, Priori SG, Lederer WJ, Marks AR. " FKBP12.6 deficiency and defective calcium release channel (ryanodine receptor) function linked to exercise-induced sudden cardiac death. " Cell. 2003 Jun 27; 113 (7) : 829-40.
  Pubmed PMID: 12837242.

Show 12 more publications

Memberships

Heart Rhythm Society

Awards committee (05/2020)

American Society for Clinical Investigation

Member (02/2015)

Association of American Physicians

Member (04/2022)

Funding

Ryanodine receptor regulation in post-operative atrial fibrillation
#R01 HL089598

(07/15/2019 - 06/30/2023)

Grant funding from NIH/NHLBI

Mechanisms underlying atrial fibrillation associated with chronic kidney disease
#R01 HL147108

(04/15/2019 - 02/28/2023)

Grant funding from NIH-NHLBI

Junctophilin-2 cleavage in ischemic heart disease
#R01 HL153350

(04/01/2021 - 03/31/2025)

Grant funding from NIH/NHLBI

Role of nucleoside-diphosphate kinase signaling in atrial fibrillation
#R01 HL160992

(02/06/2023 - 01/31/2027)

Grant funding from NIH/NHLBI

Intellectual Property

Compounds for treatment of cardiac arrhythmias

Product Patent #WO2015085245A1 (Pending)

JP2016557534A US20160311760A1

Co Inventors: R.M. Strongin, J.J. Abramson, M. Sibrian-Vazquez

Languages

Dutch, German