Heart development is a complex process that begins with differentiation of committed precursors, and continues during early postnatal life with the patterning and regulation of gene programs that are relevant to adult heart disease.  Our lab has focused on their transcriptional regulation of these processes, and more recently how chromatin remodeling factors are critically relevant to heart development.

We are studying two major transcription factor gene families, the T-box and Irx factors, which have important roles in early cardiac differentiation and morphology, and are also key regulators of postnatal cardiac function. We are also pursuing several genetic and biochemical avenues to elucidate how chromatin remodelling complexes regulates organogenesis and differentiation. We believe that these are key orchestrators of transcriptional pathways that can impart cardiac mesoderm properties to embryonic and adult stem cells.