CURRENT RESEARCH

Project 1: Generation of a 3D human gastruloid model to model human cardiac development and disease

The heart is the first organ to develop in the human embryo, first beating around week 3 of gestation and resembling the adult 4 chambered heart by the end of month 2. The successful development of the heart is critical to sustain life; when these processes are dysregulated, it can lead to congenital heart defects (CHDs). CHDs affect about 1% of births each year; thanks to modern surgical intervations, many babies survive into adulthood. However, not much is known about the causes of CHDs. This is a result of a lack of suitable models that recapitulate human heart development accurately. My thesis project therefore aims to use gastruloids to recapitulate key aspects of human heart development more accurately than any previous model; namely the spatiotemporal architectures and multilineage interactions that are not recapitulated in present models.

Project 2: Finding novel markers for Sinoatrial Node Pacemaker Cells

The sinoatrial node (SAN) is the primary pacemaker of the heart. It's job is twofold- to spontaneously initiate an electrical signal to cause the heart to contract in a coordinated fashion and to set the heart rate in different scenarios. When this conduction system is dysregulated, it may lead to arrhythmias, irregular beating rates. Currently, the gold standard for treatment of arrhythmias is the implantation of an electronic pacemaker; however, it has several drawbacks. Our lab is interested in generating an alternative solution that uses cells of the patient directly- a biological pacemaker. We have great experience in differentiating human pluripotent stem cells into pacemaker cells. Finding specific markers for SAN pacemaker cells will be critical for isolating and purifying that population for a clinically-usable SAN biological pacemaker.