Vertebrate organs are derived from epithelial or endothelial sheets of cells that undergo complex morphogenetic transformations. In our lab, we study the embryonic zebrafish heart, a relatively simple organ compared with its mammalian counterpart, to better understand the signaling events that instruct the assembly of the early heart tube. Initially the heart consists of only the outer myocardial and inner endocardial cell layers. The endocardium is a specialized population of endothelial cells that line the interior of the heart. We would like to understand: What are the signals that regulate the morphogenesis of myocardium and endocardium? To what extent do these two tissues communicate during cardiac jogging and looping morphogenesis? What determines the differentiation of endocardium into its different morphological derivatives such as cushion cells? In collaboration with clinical researchers, the group uses developmental genetics combined with cell biological and pharmacological approaches to develop animal models for human cardiovascular diseases. One particular focus of research is to characterize endocardial development. We use highly interdisciplinary approaches to analyze cardiac (both myocardial and endocardial) morphogenesis by combining expression analyses (deep sequencing; microarray studies), functional cell biological and genetic tools for tissue- or single cell level functional studies, in vivo high-resolution 4D-confocal imaging, systems biological approaches, in silico modeling of single cell behaviors during cardiac morphogenesis, and pharmacological studies.

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