Itamar is a REACT-funded PhD student with over three years of wet lab experience investigating RNA and RNA binding proteins.
It has been demonstrated that following cardiac infarction that many RNAs within the cells undergo alternative splicing leading to the production of disease associated protein isoforms.
Itamar's project is focused on fibroblasts, the discovery of which RNA binding proteins are involved in the early stages of cardiac fibrosis, and reverting the phenotype caused by said RNA binding proteins.
He is excited by the prospect of identifying the earliest changes inducing heart disease, and the potential to develop treatments to counteract the leading cause of death worldwide.