Our research focuses on the molecular and genetic mechanisms that drive heart disease. Our ultimate goal is to dissect the pathways underlying inherited and acquired forms of heart failure to devise the next generation of therapies for heart disease in humans.
We perform next generation sequencing genetic analyses and variant interpretation and we devise pharmacologic and genetic therapies for inherited cardiac diseases in humans.
We have discovered numerous cardiac and muscle-specific genes of unknown function, most of them do not code for proteins but have a regulatory function (microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, circular RNAs). We are use gain- and loss-of-function studies in cultured human cardiomyocytes and mouse models to elucidate the functions of these novel genes.
We are interested in exploring the mechanisms how human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) differentiate into distinct cardiac cell lineages and manipulate these decision-making processes with small molecules, non-coding RNAs, and regulatory transcription factors. From these studies, we extrapolate information to stimulate proliferation of adult heart muscle cells to accomplish endogenous regeneration in ischemic heart disease.