Blaser, Mark C.
Dr. Mark Blaser obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering – Minor in Biomedical Engineering, 2009) from McGill University. He completed his Ph.D (Biomedical Engineering, 2016) at the University of Toronto in the laboratory of Professor Craig Simmons, where he was a CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholar. During his Ph.D, he also spent time as a Michael Smith Visiting Scholar at the University of California – Irvine with Professor Arash Kheradvar. His doctoral dissertation was titled “The Role of C-type Natriuretic Peptide Signaling in Aortic Valve Disease”, and won the 2017 John Leyerle-CIFAR Prize for the best interdisciplinary research at the University of Toronto.
Mark joined the CICS in 2017 as a postdoctoral research fellow in Professor Elena Aikawa’s research group. He is working to identify insights into and treatments for calcific aortic valve disease, particularly in the context of congenital valve malformations that drive accelerated valvular pathogenesis.
Publications
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Blaser MC, Bäck M, Lüscher TF, Aikawa E
Calcific aortic stenosis: omics-based target discovery and therapy development.
Blaser MC, Aikawa E
Disease Drivers in Aortic Stenosis vs Atherosclerosis.
Raju S, Turner ME, Cao C, Abdul-Samad M, Punwasi N, Blaser MC, Cahalane RM, Botts SR, Prajapati K, Patel S, Wu R, Gustafson D, Galant NJ, Fiddes L, Chemaly M, Hedin U, Matic L, Seidman M, Subasri V, Singh SA, Aikawa E, Fish JE, Howe KL
Multi-omic Landscape of Extracellular Vesicles in Human Carotid Atherosclerotic Plaque Reveals Endothelial Communication Networks.
Aikawa E, Blaser MC, Singh SA, Levine RA, Yacoub MH
Challenges and Opportunities in Valvular Heart Disease: From Molecular Mechanisms to the Community.
Cahalane RME, Turner ME, Clift CL, Blaser MC, Bogut G, Levy S, Kasai T, Driedonks TAP, Nolte-'t Hoen ENM, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Aikawa E
Polycarbonate Ultracentrifuge Tube Re-use in Proteomic Analyses of Extracellular Vesicles.
Clift CL, Blaser MC, Gerrits W, Turner ME, Sonawane A, Pham T, Andresen JL, Fenton OS, Grolman JM, Campedelli A, Buffolo F, Schoen FJ, Hjortnaes J, Muehlschlegel JD, Mooney DJ, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Langer R, Aikawa E
Intracellular proteomics and extracellular vesiculomics as a metric of disease recapitulation in 3D-bioprinted aortic valve arrays.
Raju S, Botts SR, Blaser MC, Abdul-Samad M, Prajapati K, Khosraviani N, Ho TWW, Breda LCD, Ching C, Galant NJ, Fiddes L, Wu R, Clift CL, Pham T, Lee WL, Singh SA, Aikawa E, Fish JE, Howe KL
Directional Endothelial Communication by Polarized Extracellular Vesicle Release.
Rogers MA, Bartoli-Leonard F, Zheng KH, Small AM, Chen HY, Clift CL, Asano T, Kuraoka S, Blaser MC, Perez KA, Natarajan P, Yeang C, Stroes ESG, Tsimikas S, Engert JC, Thanassoulis G, O'Donnell CJ, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Aikawa E
Major Facilitator Superfamily Domain Containing 5 Inhibition Reduces Lipoprotein(a) Uptake and Calcification in Valvular Heart Disease.
Blaser MC, Buffolo F, Halu A, Turner ME, Schlotter F, Higashi H, Pantano L, Clift CL, Saddic LA, Atkins SK, Rogers MA, Pham T, Vromman A, Shvartz E, Sukhova GK, Monticone S, Camussi G, Robson SC, Body SC, Muehlschlegel JD, Singh SA, Aikawa M, Aikawa E
Multiomics of Tissue Extracellular Vesicles Identifies Unique Modulators of Atherosclerosis and Calcific Aortic Valve Stenosis.
Bartoli-Leonard F, Chelvanambi S, Pham T, Turner ME, Blaser MC, Caputo M, Aikawa M, Pang A, Muehlschlegel J, Aikawa E
Single-cell T cell receptor sequencing of paired tissue and blood samples reveals clonal expansion of CD8+ effector T cells in patients with calcific aortic valve disease.
Raju S, Botts SR, Blaser M, Prajapati K, Ho TWW, Ching C, Galant NJ, Fiddes L, Wu R, Clift CL, Pham T, Lee WL, Singh SA, Aikawa E, Fish JE, Howe KL
Endothelial cells secrete small extracellular vesicles bidirectionally containing distinct cargo to uniquely reprogram vascular cells in the circulation and vessel wall.
Blaser MC, Kraler S, Lüscher TF, Aikawa E
Network-Guided Multiomic Mapping of Aortic Valve Calcification.
Iqbal F, Schlotter F, Becker-Greene D, Lupieri A, Goettsch C, Hutcheson JD, Rogers MA, Itoh S, Halu A, Lee LH, Blaser MC, Mlynarchik AK, Hagita S, Kuraoka S, Chen HY, Engert JC, Passos LSA, Jha PK, Osborn EA, Jaffer FA, Body SC, Robson SC, Thanassoulis G, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Sonawane AR, Aikawa E
Sortilin enhances fibrosis and calcification in aortic valve disease by inducing interstitial cell heterogeneity.
Decano JL, Iwamoto Y, Goto S, Lee JY, Matamalas JT, Halu A, Blaser M, Lee LH, Pieper B, Chelvanambi S, Silva-Nicolau J, Bartoli-Leonard F, Higashi H, Shibata H, Vyas P, Wang J, Gostjeva E, Body SC, Singh SA, Aikawa M, Aikawa E
A disease-driver population within interstitial cells of human calcific aortic valves identified via single-cell and proteomic profiling.
Passos LSA, Jha PK, Becker-Greene D, Blaser MC, Romero D, Lupieri A, Sukhova GK, Libby P, Singh SA, Dutra WO, Aikawa M, Levine RA, Nunes MCP, Aikawa E
Prothymosin Alpha: A Novel Contributor to Estradiol Receptor Alpha-Mediated CD8+ T-Cell Pathogenic Responses and Recognition of Type 1 Collagen in Rheumatic Heart Valve Disease.
Kraler S, Blaser MC, Aikawa E, Camici GG, Luscher TF
Calcific aortic valve disease: from molecular and cellular mechanisms to medical therapy.
Blaser MC, Kraler S, Lüscher TF, Aikawa E
Multi-Omics Approaches to Define Calcific Aortic Valve Disease Pathogenesis.
Kraler S, Wenzl FA, Akhmedov A, Blaser MC, Aikawa E, Lüscher TF
ApoA-I mimetics improve aortic stenosis-associated left-ventricular diastolic dysfunction but fail to benefit rabbit models with normal aortic valves.
Majumdar U, Manivannan S, Basu M, Ueyama Y, Blaser MC, Cameron E, McDermott MR, Lincoln J, Cole SE, Wood S, Aikawa E, Lilly B, Garg V
Nitric oxide prevents aortic valve calcification by S-nitrosylation of USP9X to activate NOTCH signaling.
Schlotter F, de Freitas RCC, Rogers MA, Blaser MC, Wu PJ, Higashi H, Halu A, Iqbal F, Andraski AB, Rodia CN, Kuraoka S, Wen JR, Creager M, Pham T, Hutcheson JD, Body SC, Kohan AB, Sacks FM, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Aikawa E
ApoC-III is a novel inducer of calcification in human aortic valves.
Aikawa E, Blaser MC
2020 Jeffrey M. Hoeg Award Lecture: Calcifying Extracellular Vesicles as Building Blocks of Microcalcifications in Cardiovascular Disorders.
Rogers MA, Buffolo F, Schlotter F, Atkins SK, Lee LH, Halu A, Blaser MC, Tsolaki E, Higashi H, Luther K, Daaboul G, Bouten CVC, Body SC, Singh SA, Bertazzo S, Libby P, Aikawa M, Aikawa E
Annexin A1-dependent tethering promotes extracellular vesicle aggregation revealed with single-extracellular vesicle analysis.
Kawakami R, Katsuki S, Travers R, Romero DC, Becker-Greene D, Araujo Passos LS, Higashi H, Blaser MC, Sukhova GK, Buttigieg J, Kopriva D, Schmidt AM, Anderson DG, Singh SA, Cardoso L, Weinbaum S, Libby P, Aikawa M, Croce K, Aikawa E
S100A9-RAGE Axis Accelerates Formation of Macrophage-Mediated Extracellular Vesicle Microcalcification in Diabetes Mellitus.
Goto S, Rogers MA, Blaser MC, Higashi H, Lee LH, Schlotter F, Body SC, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Aikawa E
Standardization of Human Calcific Aortic Valve Disease in vitro Modeling Reveals Passage-Dependent Calcification.
Blaser MC, Aikawa E
Differential miRNA Loading Underpins Dual Harmful and Protective Roles for Extracellular Vesicles in Atherogenesis.
Creager MD, Hohl T, Hutcheson JD, Moss AJ, Schlotter F, Blaser MC, Park MA, Lee LH, Singh SA, Alcaide-Corral CJ, Tavares AAS, Newby DE, Kijewski MF, Aikawa M, Di Carli M, Dweck MR, Aikawa E
18F-Fluoride Signal Amplification Identifies Microcalcifications Associated With Atherosclerotic Plaque Instability in Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Images.
Blaser MC, Aikawa E
Roles and Regulation of Extracellular Vesicles in Cardiovascular Mineral Metabolism.
van der Valk DC, van der Ven CFT, Blaser MC, Grolman JM, Wu PJ, Fenton OS, Lee LH, Tibbitt MW, Andresen JL, Wen JR, Ha AH, Buffolo F, van Mil A, Bouten CVC, Body SC, Mooney DJ, Sluijter JPG, Aikawa M, Hjortnaes J, Langer R, Aikawa E
Engineering a 3D-Bioprinted Model of Human Heart Valve Disease Using Nanoindentation-Based Biomechanics.
Schlotter F, Halu A, Goto S, Blaser MC, Body SC, Lee LH, Higashi H, DeLaughter DM, Hutcheson JD, Vyas P, Pham T, Rogers MA, Sharma A, Seidman CE, Loscalzo J, Seidman JG, Aikawa M, Singh SA, Aikawa E
Spatiotemporal Multi-omics Mapping Generates a Molecular Atlas of the Aortic Valve and Reveals Networks Driving Disease.