Team Chris JOPLING

Cardiac disease and heart failure can be caused by a variety of different factors. For example, congenital heart diseases are caused by mutations in genes which are critical for normal cardiac development and physiology. Our team is using zebrafish larvae as a model to identify genes which are critical for cardiac development and are associated cardiac disease in humans. This data will aid clinicians in identifying at risk patients before it is too late. Cardiac disease can also be caused by non-genetic factors such as a heart attack or blocked arteries. This is often associated with widespread fibrosis which if, left unchecked, will result in heart failure. Our team in utilizing in vitro and in vivo models of heart failure to determine the factors which regulate fibrosis in order to define preventive strategies to stop or reverse this process. Cardiac disease is also caused by the loss of cardiac muscle cells due to a heart attack. Although adult humans are incapable of regenerating their hearts this is not true for all species and our team is leveraging in vivo models such as adult zebrafish and neonatal mice in order to identify the processes and molecular mechanism which are required for successful cardiac regeneration in the hope that one day, we will be able to induce a similar response in humans.