Primary Research:

My lab works on molecular and epigenetic mechanisms driving smooth muscle cell fate specification and to assess how those pathways or chromatin remodeling changes are altered in patients with moyamoya disease. Moyamoya disease (MMD), characterized by bilateral progressive stenosis and occlusion of the internal carotid arteries, is a common cause of stroke in children. Currently, the only treatment for MMD patients is surgical correction, and the disease causes high morbidity and mortality. Although multiple genetic factors predisposing to MMD have been identified, there is no consensus about a common mechanism of disease pathogenesis. Pathology from the affected vessels suggests that smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation and migration may be an important driver of the disease. Of the known genes for MMD, many encode proteins involved in chromatin remodeling. Our data so far supports they hypothesis that dysregulation of chromatin remodeling prevents SMCs from fully differentiating and that the lack of differentiation causes excessive proliferation, migration, and reliance on glycolysis for energy, thus underlying MMD pathogenesis. We are a molecular biology lab that uses mouse models and induced pluripotent stem cell models to investigate this hypothesis.

Current projects focus on:
The role of nuclear actin in SMC development
The INO80 chromatin remodeling complex in SMC development
Glycolytic metabolism as a common phenotype among MMD patients that can be exploited therapeutically

Laboratory web site URL:

thekwartlerlab.com

Recent Presentations:

1. Callie S. Kwartler. An epigenetic link between metabolism and smooth muscle cell differentiation in Acta2 p.R179 cells. GRC Vascular Cell Biology 2025, July 2025. (Oral presentation).
2. Shuvra Roy, Jose Emiliano Esparza Pinelo, Jacob Barham, Radbod Darabi, Callie S. Kwartler. Nuclear skeletal alpha-actin: a novel epigenetic regulator of myocyte differentiation? GRC Myogenesis 2025, June 2025. (Poster presentation).
3. Callie S. Kwartler. Novel epigenetic therapy for Smooth Muscle Dysfunction Syndrome. Vascular Discovery 2025, April 2025. (Oral presentation).
4. Anita Kaw, Jose Emiliano Esparza Pinelo, Suravi Majumder, Hannah Krenz, Jessica Chen, Angie Gonzalez, Dianna M. Milewicz, Callie S. Kwartler. An epigenetic link between metabolism and smooth muscle cell differentiation in Acta2 p.R179 cells. Vascular Biology 2024, October 2024. (Poster presentation)
5. Callie S. Kwartler, Anita Kaw, Suravi Majumder, Ting Wu, Zbigniew Starosolski, Amelie Pinard, Caroline Kernell, Zhen Zhou, Ketan Ghaghada, Sean Marrelli, Dianna M. Milewicz. Augmenting Mitochondrial Respiration in Immature Smooth Muscle Cells is a Therapeutic Target for Moyamoya-like Cerebrovascular Disease. Vascular Discovery 2024, May 2024. (Poster presentation)
6. Callie S. Kwartler. Targeting metabolic alterations to prevent moyamoya-like cerebrovascular disease. Vascular Biology 2023, October 2023 (Oral Presentation).