Maturing the heart: implications for disease modelling, drug discovery & regenerative medicine.
Prof Enzo Porrello - Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Australia
Human pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived cardiomyocytes are emerging as a powerful platform for cardiovascular drug discovery and regenerative medicine. However, PSC-derived cardiomyocytes are typically immature, which limits their capacity to predict human biology and disease mechanisms. Here, I will discuss recent research from our laboratory defining mechanisms controlling cardiomyocyte maturation during postnatal development with implications for cardiac disease modelling, drug discovery and regenerative medicine.
Professor Porrello is Theme Director of Stem Cell Biology and Head of the Heart Regeneration Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.He also directs the Melbourne Node of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW) and he is the founding Co-Director of the Melbourne Centre for Cardiovascular Genomics and Regenerative Medicine (CardioRegen). Prof Porrello’s research focuses on the development of regenerative therapies for children and adults with heart failure. Over the course of his career, he has made important contributions to our understanding of mammalian heart regeneration and has pioneered the development of human organoids for drug discovery. Prof Porrello is a co-founder of Dynomics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of new heart failure treatments using organoid technologies.
Host: Catherine Wilson
