Pearl Quijada, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor, Integrative Biology and Physiology
PQuijada@ucla.edu
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Pearl Quijada smiles for a photograph outdoors.

Pearl Quijada, Ph.D., studies how blood vessels grow in the heart both during development and after a heart attack. The ultimate goal of her work is to develop new therapies that can improve heart function after injury.

Quijada's research focuses on understanding the cell and molecular signaling programs that control blood vessel formation, or angiogenesis, to promote regenerative-based repair of the adult heart. She investigates the roles cardiac mural cells and fibroblasts play in regulating vessel formation and stability as the coronary vasculature develops.

A key area of study is the epicardium, the heart's outer layer, which plays a crucial role in cardiac cellular patterning and morphogenesis. She examines how the epicardium communicates with the developing coronary blood vessels, guiding cellular maturation and differentiation through chemical signaling mechanisms. Using mouse models and advanced techniques like single-cell transcriptomic sequencing, Quijada uncovers novel epicardium-directed guidance cues required for blood vessel specification and maturation.

The adult heart, unlike the fetal heart, struggles to grow new blood vessels after injury, leading to declining heart function. Applying insights from her developmental studies, Quijada investigates how factors secreted by the epicardium might promote blood vessel growth and repair in the adult heart after myocardial infarction. 

  • Studying how the epicardium, or outer layer of the heart, controls the growth of blood vessels 
  • Investigating the role cardiac fibroblasts play in regulating blood vessel growth during heart disease 
  • Examining how disruptions in communication between cardiac pericytes and endothelial cells contribute to vascular instability in heart disease
  • Identifying fetal vascular guidance mechanisms that could be harnessed to develop therapies for vascular diseases
  • Exploring cellular and molecular programs required to rebuild coronary arteries and reduce inflammation The body’s natural response to an injury or infection that occurs when an immune response is triggered to promote healing. However, chronic inflammation — inflammation that happens even when there’s no injury or invader — is an abnormal immune response. Over time, chronic inflammation can damage healthy cells, tissues and organs and lead to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and autoimmune diseases. inflammation The body’s natural response to an injury or infection that occurs when an immune response is triggered to promote healing. However, chronic inflammation — inflammation that happens even when there’s no injury or invader — is an abnormal immune response. Over time, chronic inflammation can damage healthy cells, tissues and organs and lead to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and autoimmune diseases. and scarring after a heart attack

  • Fellowship

    • Cardiovascular Development and Fibrosis, University of Rochester Medical Center, 2019

    Degree

    • Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Biology, San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego, 2015