Principal Investigators

Principal Investigators

We are a highly interdiscplinary team of researchers and innovators hoping to build a better future in cardiac therapy.

We are a highly interdiscplinary team of researchers and innovators hoping to build a better future in cardiac therapy.

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.


michael.laflamme@uhn.ca

  1. Optimized cMTs

  2. Enhanced Myocardium

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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.


gordon.keller@uhn.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

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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.


stephanie.protze@uhn.ca

Enhanced Myocardium

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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.


michael.garton@utoronto.ca

Enhanced Myocardium

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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.


sara.vasconcelos@utoronto.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

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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.


adminshoichet@utoronto.ca

Bio-biVPs

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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.


gil.bub@mcgill.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


cristina.amon@utoronto.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

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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.


shi-joon.yoo@sickkids.ca

Bio-biVPs

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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.


ali.tavallaei@torontomu.ca

Bio-biVPs

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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.


israel.valverde@sickkids.ca

Bio-biVPs

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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.


V.N.Biktashev@exeter.ac.uk

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


phynas@gwu.edu

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


slava.epelman@uhn.ca

Optimized cMTs

Translational Frameworks

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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.


jonathan.kimmelman@mcgill.ca

Translational Frameworks

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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.


broomell@purdue.edu

Translational Frameworks

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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.


valeria.rac@uhn.ca

Translational Frameworks

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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.


christoph.haller@sickkids.ca

Bio-biVPs

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


terry.yau@uhn.ca

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


kumar.nanthakumar@uhn.ca

Bio-biVPs

View profile

Nicolas Noiseux (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.


nicolas.noiseux.med@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


allen.ehrlicher@mcgill.ca

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


michael.laflamme@uhn.ca

  1. Optimized cMTs

  2. Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


gordon.keller@uhn.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


stephanie.protze@uhn.ca

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


michael.garton@utoronto.ca

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


sara.vasconcelos@utoronto.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


adminshoichet@utoronto.ca

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


gil.bub@mcgill.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


cristina.amon@utoronto.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


shi-joon.yoo@sickkids.ca

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


ali.tavallaei@torontomu.ca

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


israel.valverde@sickkids.ca

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


V.N.Biktashev@exeter.ac.uk

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


phynas@gwu.edu

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


slava.epelman@uhn.ca

Optimized cMTs

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


jonathan.kimmelman@mcgill.ca

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


broomell@purdue.edu

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


valeria.rac@uhn.ca

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


christoph.haller@sickkids.ca

Bio-biVPs

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


terry.yau@uhn.ca

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


kumar.nanthakumar@uhn.ca

Bio-biVPs

View profile

Nicolas Noiseux (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.


nicolas.noiseux.med@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Translational Frameworks

View profile

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.


allen.ehrlicher@mcgill.ca

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


michael.laflamme@uhn.ca

  1. Optimized cMTs

  2. Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


gordon.keller@uhn.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


sara.vasconcelos@utoronto.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


gil.bub@mcgill.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


cristina.amon@utoronto.ca

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

View profile

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.


V.N.Biktashev@exeter.ac.uk

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


phynas@gwu.edu

Optimized cMTs

Bio-biVPs

Enhanced Myocardium

View profile

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.


slava.epelman@uhn.ca

Optimized cMTs

Translational Frameworks

View profile

Interdisciplinary Mapping

Interdisciplinary Mapping

Explore how each team member contributes across our research work streams.

Explore how each team member contributes across our research work streams.

Pioneering the Future of Heart Repair

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Pioneering the Future of Heart Repair

Get Involved

Pioneering the Future of Heart Repair

Get Involved