Dr Michael Weinberger

Michael started to work on heart development and repair when doing his PhD.

Investigating the zebrafish, he characterised different cell populations in the epicardium, the outer cell layer of the heart. He went on to study the regulation of gene expression in the epicardium during heart development and repair upon injury.

During these projects, Michael became increasingly interested in analyzing large-scale sequencing data to uncover the cell types that form the heart, the genes they express and the impact of injury on the heart. In his current project, he uses data analysis to identify candidate genes for future genetic therapies designed to promote repair following a heart attack.

In human patients and adult mice, cells that die during a heart attack are permanently replaced by a scar, which often disturbs the pumping of the heart. In new-born mice and zebrafish however, dead cardiac tissue is fully repaired following injury. 

Analysing publicly available gene expression data, Michael aims to identify genes that respond differently to a heart attack in the reparative settings versus the non-reparative settings. REACT provides an exciting framework to further investigate such target genes, which may lead to powerful new treatments enabling heart repair.