Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world today. A central feature of heart disease is the permanent loss of heart muscle, which regenerates very poorly in humans. Unlike humans, zebrafish can replenish up to 60% of lost heart muscle or cardiomyocytes (CM) without adverse effects or scarring. Only some of the factors involved in this regeneration have been identified; others remain to be discovered. One major challenge has been to reveal master regulators that define regenerative capacity.

The long-term goal of my laboratory is to identify the gene regulatory network that governs regeneration. Transcriptional control is likely a key feature of regeneration competency as thousands of genes change in expression. As primary determinants of gene regulation, transcription factors not normally active in uninjured CMs are likely required for triggering regeneration. Yet, the identity of these factors remains elusive. Similarly, changes in chromatin packaging integral during development may likewise underpin competency for regeneration. Nucleosome reorganization may be a critical feature of normally dormant cis- regulatory elements and promoters. My research program aims to identify novel transcription factors and chromatin regulation governing zebrafish heart regeneration.