Cardiovascular Diseases & Diagnosis

Vesa Kaartinen

Biography

Vesa M. Kaartinen, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biologic and Material Sciences. He received MSc (1986) and PhD (1991) degrees from the University of Kuopio, Finland studying the molecular bases of a lysosomal storage disease, aspartylglucosaminuria. He then began a postdoctoral fellowship at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles with Dr. John Groffen and Dr. Nora Heisterkamp, where he specialized in developmental biology with particular emphasis in mouse genetics and organogenesis. In 1997, he joined the faculty of the University of Southern California, and the Developmental Biology Program in the Saban Research Institute. In 2008, he joined the faculty of University of Michigan. His research program focuses on growth factor signaling in craniofacial and cardiac development. Dr. Kaartinen has served in several institutional and national committees including both NIH and American Heart Association grant review panels, and he is a reviewer for many scientific journals. 

Research Interest

Lip fusion, and differentiation and anterior-posterior patterning of the palatal epithelium, regulation of TGF-beta3 expression in the palatal epithelium and the role of TGF-beta3 signaling in the palatal mesenchyme,molecular mechanisms that regulate craniofacial and cardiac development