We are a highly interdiscplinary team of researchers and innovators hoping to build a better future in cardiac therapy.
Michael Laflamme (UHN)
Michael is a world leader in testing stem-cell derived cardiomyocytes in preclinical myocardial infarct models. He is a Canada Research Chair (CRC1) in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine.
Our Principal Investigators
Gordon Keller (UHN)
Gordon is the Director of the McEwen Stem Cell Institute and world-renowned expert on the guided differentiation of stem cells into cardiovascular and hematopoietic lineages.
Stephanie Protze (UHN)
UHN Scientist, and Assistant Professor, UofT, Stephanie focuses on deriving specialized cardiac subtypes from hPSCs including atrial, ventricular, and nodal/pacemaker myocytes.
Adam Feinberg (CMU)
Adam is a world expert in the engineered muscle morphogenesis. He invented a method to 3D bioprint myocardial tissues, which became the basis of the company FluidForm Bio.
Molly Shoichet (U of T)
As a world expert in novel biomaterials for tissue regeneration and drug delivery, Molly was recognized as an Officer of the Order of Canada and as a fellow in all three of Canada’s National Academies.
Shi-Joon Yoo (SickKids)
Shi-Joon is an expert in translating information from CT or MRI scans and pioneered 3D printing technology for preoperative simulation in congenital heart disease.
Vadim Biktashev (Exeter)
An expert in mathematical modeling of cardiac tissues, Vadim has described key phenomenon related to electrical propagation in cardiac tissue and helped develop BeatBox for multiscale modeling of cardiac physiology.
Stephen Broomell (Purdue)
Stephen is an expert in judgement and decision-making. He designs surveys aimed at understanding public perception of risks and the psychological processes that drive decision-making.
Christoph Haller (SickKids)
Christoph is cardiovascular surgeon and scientist. He routinely performs complex surgical procedures in the neonatal heart and has a research program exploring stem cell therapy in congenital heart disease.
Nicolas Noizeux (CHUM)
Nicolas has led inaugural clinical trials evaluating cardiac stem cell transplantation. He co-founded Targa Biomedical, which develops pharmaco-conditioning solutions to improve cell therapies/transplants.
Michael Garton (U of T)
Assistant Professor, UofT, and CRC2 in Synthetic Biology, Michael is an expert at high-throughput computational protein design and genome editing to endow cells with new functionalities.
Gil Bub (McGill)
Gil is an expert in imaging and instrumentation. His lab developed a Newtonian telescope-inspired microscope system for high-throughput, longitudinal functional imaging of cells.
Ali Tavallaei (TMU)
A CRC2 in Systems and Devices for Cardiovascular Interventions, Ali is an expert in biomedical devices for evaluating cardiac function. He is the founder of Magellan Biomedical.
Narine Sarvazyan (GWU)
Narine is an expert on graft-induced arrhythmias and cardiac regeneration. She introduced a new theoretical framework for ectopic arrhythmias and contributed to work on attenutating host immune response to stem cells.
Valeria Rac (UHN)
Valeria is an expert in health services and health technology assessments (HTA). Her research includes a strong focus on evaluating the impact of upcoming technologies on cardiovascular medicine.
Terrence Yau (UHN)
Terry is a cardiac surgeon and scientist with expertise in clinical trials of cardiac stem cell transplantation. He has led multicenter clinical trials with cell products for advanced forms of heart failure.
Allen Ehrlicher (McGill)
A CRC2 in Active Biological Mechanics, Allen develops techniques for measuring cell mechanics using a range of innovative methods that leverage his lab's expertise in controlling substrate properties.
Sara Vasconcelos (UHN)
Sara focuses on generating complex, vascularized tissues for in vitro modeling and therapies, creating unique platforms for 3D modeling of stem-cell derived cardiomyocytes.
Cristina Amon (U of T)
An Order of Canada recipient, Cristina is a pioneer in computational fluid dynamics for biomedical device design (including bioreactors) and an expert in simulation of cardiovascular system biomechanics.
Israel Valverde (SickKids)
Israel is the Director of Cardiovascular MRI at SickKids and an expert in advanced clinical cardiac imaging technologies and 3D bioprinting of vessels.
Jonathan Kimmelman (McGill)
Jonathan is a world leader in the study of ethical, social, and policy implications of translational biomedical research. He has authored international guidelines stem cell research standards.
Slava Epelman (UHN)
Slava is a cardiologist and Loretta Rogers Chair in Immunobioengineering. He has made major contributions to cardiac immunobiology including the identification of distinct cardiac macrophage subpopulations.
Kumaraswamy Nanthakumar (UHN)
An expert in cardiac arrhythmias, Nantha has clarified the electrophysiology of stem cell transplantation and is commercializing a novel device for mapping arrhythmia circuits in ventricular tachycardia.
