Colin Rushing L&S Biological Sciences
Characterizing Human Neural Crest Derived Cardiomyocytes
My project is focused on creating a protocol to generate cardiomyocytes, heart cells, derived from the neural crest, a population of cells that forms during early development and contributes to a wide variety of tissues in the body. These cells, cardiac neural crest derived cardiomyocytes (cncCM’s), have been observed to greatly contribute to cardiac regeneration in animals like zebrafish, which can, miraculously, regain complete function of their hearts following severe injury, without any outside intervention. We want to explore what function, if any, these cells have in the human body, and if they have none why not. To do this we’re using stem cells that we will be treating with various signaling molecules present in the embryo during the formation of the neural crest. Following the treatment I’ll test the cells and check whether they are expressing the same genes that we know are expressed in these cells in zebrafish.
Message To Sponsor
Thank you so much for funding this project. As someone who has suffered from heart issues, it means so much to me to be able to work on science that has the potential to help so many people. I am looking forward to seeing where this project takes me and hopefully discover something that will take us one step closer to a healthy future!