Appointments and affiliations
Scientist
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Director
Cardiovascular Electrophysiology Laboratory
University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Associate Professor
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Dr. Wenbin Liang is a Scientist and the Director of the Cardiovascular Electrophysiology Laboratory at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. He is also an Associate Professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa.
Background
Dr. Liang completed his PhD studies in the Department of Physiology, University of Toronto focusing on the electrophysiology of cardiomyocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells (Advisor: Dr. Peter Backx) and was trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Eduardo Marbàn (Director of Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, in Los Angeles) focusing on gene- and cell-based therapies of heart rhythm disorders.
During his Ph.D and postdoctoral training, Dr. Liang was awarded the CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship, the US Heart Rhythm Society Postdoctoral Fellowship (ranked #1 in the Committee), and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) Doctoral Research Award.
As an independent investigator, Dr. Liang has received several awards, including the CIHR Early Career Investigator Award (Ranked # 2 in Committee, 2019-2021), Canadian Cardiovascular Society - Young Investigator Award - Runner Up (Ranked #1 in Basic Science, 2019), HSFC McDonald Scholarship and New Investigator Award (Ranked #1 in Committee, 2017-2022), Early Researcher Award (Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science, 2017), and Gordon K. Moe Young Investigator Award (Ranked #1 in Committee, Upstate New York Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, 2015).
Dr. Liang’s research has been funded by CIHR, HSFC, and Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Research and clinical interests
Dr. Liang’s research is focused on the mechanisms of cardiac remodeling after an injury, and how this remodeling leads to lethal heart rhythm disorders. Techniques used include somatic gene transfer, stem cells, cellular electrophysiology, organ culture, and whole-animal studies, as well as cellular and molecular biology techniques. Dr. Liang’s recent research has identified a critical role of the Wnt signaling pathways in both inherited and acquired heart rhythm disorders, showing that blocking these pathways may be a potential new therapy for reducing these disorders.
Publications
List of publications on Google Scholar.
Selected publications:
- Kayyem O, Gu R, Xia Y, Wang J, Lu A, Wang H, Davis DR, Liu P, and Liang W.
Wnt/β-catenin Signaling Regulates Cardiac Cx43 in a Metabolic Substrate-Dependent Manner.
Journal of Cellular and Molecular Cardiology Plus, 2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmccpl.2025.100488 - Ngou E, Kim KH, and Liang W.
Extracellular matrix cues regulate cardiac pacemaker cell induction from ventricular myocytes (Invited Editorial).
American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 2025
https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00217.2025 - Gu R, Wang J, Morin J, Lu A, and Liang W.
High glucose sensitizes male and female rat cardiomyocytes to Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Biomolecules, 2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/biom14121639 - Lu A, Gu R, Chu C, Xia Y, Wang J, Davis DR, and Liang W.
Inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling upregulates Nav1.5 channels in Brugada syndrome iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.
Physiological Reports, 2023
https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.14814/phy2.15696 - Lu A, Wang J, Xia Y, Gu R, Kim K-H, Mulvihill E, Davis DR, Beanlands R, and Liang W.
Viral transgene expression in rodent hearts and the assessment of cardiac arrhythmia risk.
Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2022
https://app.jove.com/t/64073/viral-transgene-expression-rodent-hearts-assessment-cardiac - Wang J, Xia Y, Lu A, Wang H, Davis DR, Liu P, Beanlands RS, Liang W.
Cardiomyocyte-specific deletion of β-catenin protects mouse hearts from ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction.
Scientific Reports, 2021
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97176-9 - Lu A, Kamkar M, Chu C, Wang J, Gaudet K, Chen Y, Lin L, Liu W, Marbán E, Liang W. Direct and Indirect Suppression of Scn5a Gene Expression Mediates Cardiac Na+ Channel Inhibition by Wnt Signalling.
Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 2020
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32046907 - Liang W, Han P, Kim EH, Mak J, Zhang R, Torrente AG, Goldhaber JI, Marbán E, Cho HC.
Canonical Wnt signaling promotes pacemaker cell specification of cardiac mesodermal cells derived from mouse and human embryonic stem cells.
Stem Cells, 2020
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31648393 - Lu A, Chu C, Mulvihill E, Wang R, Liang W.
ATP-sensitive K+ channels and mitochondrial permeability transition pore mediate effects of hydrogen sulfide on cytosolic Ca2+ homeostasis and insulin secretion in β-cells.
Pflugers Archiv - European Journal of Physiology, 2019
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00424-019-02325-9 - Liang W, Lu A, Davis DR.
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Based Treatment of Acquired Heart Block: The Battle for Tomorrow Has Begun (Editorial)
Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, 2017
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28500180 - Wolf AJ, Reyes CN, Liang W, Becker C, Shimada K, Wheeler ML, Cho HC, Popescu NI, Coggeshall KM, Arditi M, Underhill DM.
Hexokinase Is an Innate Immune Receptor for the Detection of Bacterial Peptidoglycan.
Cell, 2016 [cover article]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27374331
Direct conversion of quiescent cardiomyocytes to pacemaker cells by expression of Tbx18.
Nature Biotechnology, 2013
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23242162