I received my PhD degree at University of Tsukuba, Japan. My graduate study was focused on understanding mechanisms of direct cardiac reprogramming in both mouse and human fibroblasts. Later on, as a postdoctoral fellow, I focused more on the roles on non-coding RNAs in cardiovascular disease. During my early postdoc career in Case Western Reserve University, I worked on understanding non-canonical functions of microRNAs, particularly of miR-1, in cardiac physiology. My essential work found that miR-1 could directly bind with Kir2.1 ion channel at protein level and regulate the action potential in cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, this interaction seemed not to be restricted to miR-1 and Kir2.1 as our extensive work showed several other potential binding partners of miR-1, and it is likely that other ion channels might be non-canonically regulated by different miRs. I have also worked on novel functions of long non-coding RNAs in atrial cell specification and cardiac hypertrophy in Prof. Dazhi Wang's lab at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Most recently, my research is focused on understanding roles on long non-coding RNAs in atherosclerosis at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.