Cardiomyocyte Renewal Laboratory

A Research Department at The Texas Heart Institute
Dividing adult cardiomyocytes (red). DNA (nuclei) are in blue, the cell division marker Aurora B is in green and cell membranes are in white.
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Cardiomyocyte Renewal Laboratory

The future of preventing and treating heart disease

The Cardiomyocyte Renewal Laboratory focuses on understanding how genetic pathways are connected to adult tissue homeostasis and regeneration. By obtaining an in-depth understanding of these pathways, the team hopes to develop treatments and techniques that will prevent disorders like heart failure and atrial fibrillation and develop new treatments to treat heart disease.

Dr. James Martin has a theory

Dr. James Martin, Director of Texas Heart Institute’s Cardiomyocyte Renewal Laboratory, and his team in the THI lab with their collaborators have conducted groundbreaking work that is taking us one step closer to heart regeneration and renewal. The team’s research on genetic pathways has revealed important new knowledge about pathways and signals that cause the heart muscle cells to proliferate that restrict the heart’s ability to repair itself after injury. Their discoveries are allowing them to manipulate these cell signaling channels called the “Hippo pathway” and they have been able to trigger cardiomyocytes to multiply and essentially repair the scarred muscle, thus renewing the heart’s pumping function.