Heping (Peace) Cheng,  Ph.D.

Professor

Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Calcium Signaling

Cheung Kong Scholars

Room 338, Ying-Jie Conference Center,

Peking University,

Beijing, China 100871

E-mail: chengp@ pku.edu.cn

Phone: 86-10-6275-8383

Professor Heping (Peace) Cheng received degrees in applied mathematics and mechanics, physiology, and biomedical engineering from Peking University, China, where he served as a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering before earning his Ph.D. degree in Physiology in 1995 from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. He then joined the NIH Intramural Research Program as a senior staff fellow in 1995 and was selected as a tenure-track investigator in 1998. In November, 2004, he became a senior investigator and the head of the Ca²⁺ Signaling Section in the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Science, National Institute on Aging, NIH. He participated the Cheung Kong Scholars Programme (cell biology) in 2000 and is now a full-time senior investigator of IMM, PKU. 

Selected Publications:

1. Cheng, H., Lederer, W.J., Cannell., M.B., 1993, Calcium sparks: The elementary events underlying excitation-contraction coupling in heart muscle. Science 262, 740-744

2. Cheng, H., Fill, M., Valdivia, H.H., Lederer, W.J., 1995, Models of calcium release channel adaptation, Science 267, 2009-2010

3. Cannell, M.B., Cheng, H., Lederer, W.J., 1995, The control of calcium release in heart muscle.  Science 268, 1045-1050

4. Nelson, M.T., Cheng, H., Rubart, M., Santana, L.F., Bonev, A., Knot, H.,  Lederer, W.J., 1995, Relaxation of arterial smooth muscle by calcium sparks. Science 270, 633-637

5. Klein, M.G., Cheng, H.*, Santana, L.F., Lederer, W.J., Schneider, M.F., 1996, Discrete sarcomeric calcium release events activated by dual mechanisms in skeletal muscle. Nature 379, 455-458 (* the corresponding author)

6. Gomez, A.M., Valdivia, H.H., Cheng, H., Santana, L.F., Lederer, W.J., 1997, Defective excitation-contraction coupling in experimental cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Science 276, 800-806

7. Wang, S.Q., Song, L.-S., Lakatta, E.G., Cheng, H., 2001, Ca²⁺ signalling between single L-type Ca²⁺ channels and ryanodine receptors in heart cells. Nature 410, 592-596

8. Pan, Z., Yang, D., Nagaraj, R.Y., Nosek, T.A., Nishi, M. Takeshima, H., Cheng, H., Ma, J., 2002, Dysfunction of store-operated Ca²⁺ channel in muscle cells lacking mg29 gene. Nature Cell Biol. 4, 379-383

9. Wang, S.Q., Stern, M.D., Ríos, E., Cheng, H., 2004,The quantal nature of ca²⁺ sparks and in situ operation of the ryanodine receptor array in cardiac cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA  101, 3979-3984

10. Wang, S.Q., Wei, C.L., Gao, G. L., Brochet, D., Shen, J.X., Song, L.S., Wang, W., Yang, D.M., Cheng, H., 2004, Imaging microdomain Ca²⁺ in muscle cells.  Circ. Res.  94, 1011-1022 (invited review)

11. Wang, W., Zhu, W., Wang, S. Q., Yang, D. M., Crow, M. T., Xiao, R. P., Cheng, H., 2004, Sustained b₁-adrenergic stimulation modulates cardiac contractility by Ca²⁺/calmodulin kinase signaling pathway.  Circ. Res. 95,798-806.

12. Xu, X., Yang, D.,  Ding, J., Wang, W., Chu, P. H.,  Dalton, N. D., Wang, H. Y.,  Bermingham, J. R., Jr., Ye, Z., Liu, F., Rosenfeld, F. G.,  Manley, J. L., Ross J., Jr., Chen, J.,  Xiao, R.-P., Cheng, H.,  Fu, X. D.,  2005, ASF/SF2-regulated postnatal reprogramming of CaMKIId alternative splicing modulates excitation-contraction coupling in cardiac muscle. Cell. 120, 59-72

13. Brochet, D. X. P., Yang, D.,  Di Maio, A., Lederer, W. J., Franzini-Armstrong, C., Cheng, H., 2005, Calcium blinks: Rapid nanoscopic store calcium signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 102, 3099-3104

14. Ouyan, K., Wu, C. H., Cheng, H., 2005, Ca²⁺-induced Ca²⁺ release in sensory neurons: Low-gain amplification confers intrinsic stability. J. Biol. Chem. 280, 15898-15902

15. Ouyang, K., Zheng, H., Qin, X., Zhang, C., Yang, D., Wang, X., Wu, C., Zhou, Z., and Cheng, H., 2005, Ca²⁺ sparks and secretion in dorsal root ganglion neurons. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 102:12259-12264

16. Song, L-S, Sobie, EA, McCulle, S, Lederer, WJ, Balke, CW, Cheng, H., 2006, Orphaned ryanodine receptors in the failing heart. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 103: 4305-4310