Michael V Zaragoza, MD, PhD

Picture of Michael V Zaragoza, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Pediatrics Dept., Genetic and Genomic Medicine Division,
College of Health Sciences
Joint Faculty Member, Biological Chemistry
Faculty- UCI Campus, Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center
Faculty, Center for Complex Biological Systems
M.D., Case Western Reserve University, 2000, Medical Scientist Training Program
Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, 2000, Medical Scientist Training Program- Genetics
B.A., University of California at Berkeley, 1992, Biophysics-Medical Physics with honors, high distinction
Phone: (949) 824-8813
Email: mzaragoz@hs.uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
2042 Hewitt Hall
Mail Code: 3940
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC) to model inherited disease, gene editing, medical genetics/genomics, DNA variation, genetic modifiers, inherited cardiovascular diseases, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, arrhythmia, sudden cardiac death
Academic Distinctions
1992 Phi Beta Kappa, UC, Berkeley
1992-2000 National Service Award Training Grant, Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), CWRU
2003 Pediatric Resident Teaching Award, UC Irvine Medical Center
2005 Outstanding Pediatric Fellow Award, UC Irvine Medical Center
2007 Faculty Career Development Award, UCI
2007, 2008, 2009 American Heart Association Undergraduate Student Research Program- Host Laboratory
2007, 2011, 2014 College of Medicine Committee on Research Award, UC Irvine- Award x3
2012 UCI Institute for Clinical & Translational Science (ICTS) Pilot Project Award
2012, 2013 Best 1st year Course Award, Medical Genetics Course Director, UCI School of Medicine- Award x2
2012-2018 Excellence in Teaching Award, Office of Medical Education, UCI SOM- Award x7
Research Abstract
Inherited cardiovascular diseases including cardiomyopathies and arrhythmia are conditions with high morbidity and limited therapies. Cardiomyopathies are caused by defects in either structural or energetic components of heart cells which lead to muscle weakness and heart failure. Arrhythmia is an abnormal heart beat or rhythm caused by a change in the electrical signals of the heart that can result in sudden cardiac death.

To investigate the molecular mechanisms of inherited cardiovascular diseases, the Zaragoza Lab is developing in vitro disease models using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to assess the pathogenicity and mechanism of genetic mutations and modifiers.
Short Biography
Filipino-American born & raised in Cleveland, Ohio.
Publications
1. Zaragoza MV, Jacobs PA, James RS, Rogan P, Sherman S, Hassold T. (1994) Nondisjunction of human acrocentric chromosomes:studies of 432 trisomic fetuses and liveborns. Hum Genet 94:411-417.

2. Hassold T, Abruzzo M, Adkins K, Griffin D, Merrill M, Millie E, Saker D, Shen J, Zaragoza M. (1996) Human aneuploidy: incidence, origin and etiology. Environ Mol Mut 28:167-175.

3. Keep D, Zaragoza MV, Hassold T, Redline RW. (1996) Very early complete hydatidiform mole. Hum Pathol 27:708-713.

4. Zaragoza MV, Keep D, Genest DR, Hassold T, Redline RW. (1997) Early complete hydatidiform moles contain inner cell mass derivatives. Am J Med Genet 70:273-277.

5. Griffin DK, Millie EA, Redline RW, Hassold TJ, Zaragoza MV. (1997) Cytogenetic analysis of spontaneous abortions: comparison of techniques and assessment of the incidence of confined placental mosaicism. Am J Med Genet 72:297-301.

6. Redline RW, Hassold T, Zaragoza MV. (1998) Prevalence of the partial molar phenotype in triploidy of maternal and paternal origin. Hum Pathol 29:505-511.

7. Redline RW, Hassold T, Zaragoza M. (1998) Determinants of villous trophoblastic hyperplasia in spontaneous abortions. Mod Pathol 11:762-768.

8. Zaragoza MV, Millie E, Redline RW, Hassold TJ. (1998) Studies of non-disjunction in trisomies 2, 7, 15, and 22:does the parental origin of trisomy influence placental morphology? J Med Genet 35:924 931.

9. Redline RW, Zaragoza M, Hassold T. (1999) Prevalence of developmental and inflammatory lesions in nonmolar first-trimester spontaneous abortions. Hum Pathol 30:93-100.

10. Zaragoza MV, Millie E, Chakravarti A, Surti U, Redline RW, Hassold TJ. (2000) Origin and phenotype of triploidy in spontaneous abortions: predominance of diandry and its association with the partial hydatidiform mole. Am J Hum Genet. 66:1807-20.

11. Zaragoza MV, Lewis LE, Wang E, Sun G, Li L, Said-Salman I, Feucht L, Huang T. (2004) Identification of the TBX5 transactivating domain and the nuclear localization signal.Gene 330:9-18.

12. Pop, R, Zaragoza MV, Gaudette M, Bocian ME, Scherer G. (2005) A homozygous nonsense mutation in SOX9 in the dominant disorder campomelic dysplasia: a case of mitotic gene conversion. Hum Genet. 117:43-53.
13. Zaragoza MV, Arbustini E, Narula J. (2007) Noncompaction of the left ventricle: primary cardiomyopathy with an elusive genetic etiology. Curr Opin Pediatr 19:619-627.
14. Lindvall LE, Kormeili T, Chen E, Ramirez MM, Martignetti JA, Zaragoza MV, Dyson SW. (2008) Infantile systemic hyalinosis: case report and review of the literature. J Am Acad Dermatol 58:303-307.
15. Zaragoza MV, Fass J, Diegoli M, Lin D, Arbustini E. (2010) Mitochondrial DNA Variant Discovery and Evaluation in Human Cardiomyopathies through Next-generation Sequencing. PLoS ONE 5(8): e12295. PMID: 20808834; PMC2924892
16. Zaragoza MV, Brandon MC, Diegoli M, Arbustini E, Wallace DC. (2011) Mitochondrial cardiomyopathy: how to identify candidate pathogenic mutations by complete mitochondrial DNA sequencing, MITOMASTER and phylogenetic analysis. Eur J Hum Genet. 19:200-207. PMID: 20978534; PMC3025796
17. Narula N*, Zaragoza MV*, Sengupta PP, Li P, Haider N, Verjans J, Waymire K, Vannan M, Wallace DC. (2011) Adenine Nucleotide Translocase 1 Deficiency Results in Dilated Cardiomyopathy with Severe Defects in Myocardial Mechanics, Histopathology, and Activation of Apoptosis. *Co-first authors. J Am Coll Cardiol Img. 4:1-10. PMID: 21232697
18. Ronvelia D, Greenwood J, Platt J, Hakim S, Zaragoza MV. (2012) Clinical variability for novel TAZ gene mutation: Barth syndrome with dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure in an infant and left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) in his great-uncle. Molec Genet Metab. 107:428-432. PMID: 23031367; PMC3483384
19. Strauss KA, DuBiner L, Simon M, Zaragoza M, Sengupta PP, Li P, Narula N, Dreike S, Platt J, Procaccio V, Ortiz-Gonzalez XR, Puffenberger EG, Kelley RI, Morton DH, Narula J, Wallace DC. (2013) Severity of Cardiomyopathy Associated with Adenine Nucleotide Translocator-1 Null Mutation Correlates with mtDNA Haplogroup. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 110:3453-3458. PMID: 23401503; PMC3587196
20. Marshall LS, Simon J, Wood T, Peng M, Owen R, Feldman GS, Zaragoza MV. (2013) Deletion Xq27.3q28 in female patient with global developmental delays and skewed X-inactivation. BMC Medical Genetics, 14:49. PMID: 23634718; PMC3643848
21. Zaragoza MV, Fung L, Jensen E, Oh F, Cung K, McCarthy LA, Tran CK, Hoang V, Hakim SA, Grosberg A. (2016) Exome Sequencing Identifies a Novel LMNA Splice-site Mutation and Multigenic Heterozygosity of Potential Modifiers in a Family with Sick Sinus Syndrome, Dilated Cardiomyopathy, and Sudden Cardiac Death. PLoS ONE 11: e0155421. PMID: 27182706; PMCID: PMC4868298
22. Zaragoza MV, Hakim SA, Hoang V, Elliott AM. (2017) Heart-Hand Syndrome IV: a second family with LMNA-related cardiomyopathy and brachydactyly. Clin Genet. 91:499-500. PMID: 27723096; PMCID: PMC5347894
23. Zaragoza MV, Nguyen CHH, Widyastuti HP, McCarthy LA, Grosberg A. (2017) Dupuytren’s and Ledderhose diseases in a Family with LMNA-related Cardiomyopathy and a Novel Variant in the ASTE1 Gene. Cells 6:40. PMID: 29104234.
24. Core JQ, Mehrabi M, Robinson ZR, Ochs AR, McCarthy LA, Zaragoza MV, Grosberg A. (2017) Age of heart disease presentation and dysmorphic nuclei in patients with LMNA mutations. PLoS One 12:e0188256. PMID: 29149195; PMCID: PMC5693421.
25. Tran RD, Siemens M, Nguyen CC, Ochs A, Zaragoza MV, Grosberg A. (2019) The Effect of Cyclic Strain on Human Fibroblasts with Lamin A/C Mutations and Its Relation to Heart Disease. J Biomech Eng. Jun 24. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31233093. PMCID: PMC7104779 (available on 2021-06-01).
26. Ochs AR, Mehrabi M, Becker D, Asad MN, Zhao J, Zaragoza MV, Grosberg A. (2019) Databases to Efficiently Manage Medium Sized, Low Velocity, Multidimensional Data in Tissue Engineering. J Vis Exp. (153), e60038. PMID: 31814616. PMCID: PMC7156791 (available on 2020-11-22).
27. Widyastuti HP, Norden-Krichmar TM, Grosberg A, Zaragoza MV. (2020) Gene expression profiling of fibroblasts in a family with LMNA-related cardiomyopathy reveals molecular pathways implicated in disease pathogenesis. BMC Med Genet. 21:152. PMID: 32698886; PMCID: PMC7374820.
28. Morival JLP, Widyastuti HP, Nguyen CHH, Zaragoza MV*, Downing TL*. (2021) DNA methylation analysis reveals epimutation hotspots in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy-associated laminopathies. *Co-senior authors. Clin Epigenet. 13:139. PMID: 34246298; PMCID: PMC8272901.
29. Mehrabi M, Morris TA, Cang Z, Nguyen CHH, Sha Y, Asad MN, Khachikyan N, Green TL, Becker DM, Nie Q, Zaragoza MV, Grosberg A. (2021) A Study of Gene Expression, Structure, and Contractility of iPSC-Derived Cardiac Myocytes from a Family with Heart Disease due to LMNA Mutation. Ann Biomed Eng. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34585335.
Grants
K08 NIH/NHLBI Mitochondrial Dysfunction & Noncompaction Cardiomyopathy, 2006-2011
R01 NIH/NHLBI Cardiac Functional and Structural Implications of Lamin A/C Mutations, 2015-present
Professional Societies
American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)
American Heart Association (AHA)
International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
Other Experience
Board Certified in Clinical Genetics
American Board of Medical Genetics 2005
Director, UCI Medical Genetics Course for 1st yr medical students, 2011-present

Faculty, UCI Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC), 2011-present

Graduate Programs
Cellular and Molecular Biosciences
Medical Genetics
Last updated
12/03/2021