Wellcome Trust PhD Programme for Clinicians at Imperial College London: 'Characterisation of the electrophysiological properties of cardiac myocytes derived from induced pluripotent and embryonic stem cells'. (360G-Wellcome-090790_Z_09_A)

£13,755

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) are created from adult somatic cells by ectopic expression of key 'stemness' transcription factors, avoiding the ethically problematic use of Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC). Autogenic iPSC also avoid technical problems associated with ESC, such as host immune rejection. Consequently iPSC derived Cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CM) may be more suitable for use in regenerative medicine and as in-vitro disease models. To ensure that iPSC-CM are safe and effective it is important to establish that they are capable of full differentiation and maturation. Furthermore their use as in-vitro disease models must be validated by comparison with human ESC derived Cardiomyocytes (ESC-CM), adult human cardiomyocytes and previously characterised animal heart preparations. As techniques to evaluate gene expression and cell morphology have significant limitations in determining the phenotype of both developing and adult cardiomyocytes characterisation of the electrophysiological properties of iPSC-CM is critical. The electrophysiological properties of singleand multi-cellular iPSC-CM preparations will be compared with ESC-CM, adult human heart tissue routinely removed during cardiac surgery, and well characterised animal heart preparations. Several techniques including multi-electrode arrays, patch clamping, voltage sensitive dyes and optical mapping techniques will be used.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded 13755
Applicant Surname Rao
Approval Committee Neurosciences And Mental Health
Award Date 2010-06-14T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2009/10
Grant Programme: Title PhD Training Fellowship for Clinicians
Internal ID 090790/Z/09/A
Lead Applicant Dr Christopher Rao
Partnership Value 13755
Planned Dates: End Date 2012-10-31T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2010-06-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region Greater London
Sponsor(s) Lord Ara Darzi, Mr Thanos Athanasiou, Prof Charles Pusey, Prof Sian Harding