Dear All,

On Thursday 21.11 in the CN lecture hall we will host Dr Glenn Radice. His lecture will be entitled: "Mechanisms Linking Cell Mechanics and Cardiac Regeneration". The lecture will take place at 3 p.m. in the CN lecture hall and it will be followed by a get together.

Glenn's research interests are in the development of the mammalian heart, cell adhesion and the N-cadherin-catenin complex in the heart, and gene knockout models.
More information about his research interests here https://vivo.brown.edu/display/gradice#Research

Research Summary

Coronary artery disease leads to heart attacks in more than 10 million people each year, causing irreversible damage to their heart muscle. Current therapies prolong survival by protecting remaining cardiomyocytes but cannot overcome the fundamental problem of replacing lost cardiomyocytes. While lower vertebrates such as zebrafish can regenerate adult heart muscle following injury, the mammalian heart loses its regenerative capacity shortly after birth. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify novel targets that stimulate cardiomyocyte proliferation to replace lost muscle and enhance cardiac contractility following a heart attack or myocardial infarction. The transition from hyperplastic to hypertrophic growth in the postnatal heart is accompanied by dynamic remodeling of cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion structures, suggesting cell adhesion/cytoskeletal changes are critical in myocardial growth control. In support of this idea, our lab found that modifying the linkage between N-cadherin and the actin cytoskeleton leads to the accumulation of Yap in the nucleus, increased cardiomyocyte proliferation, and improved cardiac function following myocardial infarction in mice. Today, we will discuss the molecular mechanisms regulating the dynamic nature and interplay between myocardial cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions and the ensuing downstream signals that ultimately control cardiomyocyte proliferation.

Tomasz Wypych