LAUSR

The delivery of cells into damaged myocardium induces limited cardiac regeneration due to extensive cell death. In an effort to limit cell death, our lab formulates three-dimensional matrices as a delivery system for cell therapy. Our primary work has been focused on the formation of engineered cardiac tissues (ECTs) from human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived engineered cardiac cells. However, ECT immaturity hinders ability to fully recover damaged myocardium. Various conditioning regimens such as mechanical stretch and/or electric pacing have been used to activate maturation pathways. To improve ECT maturity, we use non-contacting chronic light stimulation using heterologously expressed light-sensitive channelrhodopsin ion channels. We transduce ECTs with an AAV packaged channelrhodopsin and chronically optically pace (C-OP) ECTs for 1 week above the intrinsic beat rate, resulting in increased ECT electrophysiological properties.