We are a multidisciplinary research group integrating expertise in cell biology, stem cell technology, and medicine.
The main aim of the heart group is to differentiate functional cardiomyocytes, cardiac cells and hepatocytes from pluripotent stem cells and to investigate various genetic heart diseases and atherosclerosis using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology.
Our research also focuses on developing iPSC lines from patient samples and optimizing differentiation methods and growth conditions for cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes. This involves examining the effects of biochemical and physical factors on cell differentiation, growth, maturation, and characteristics. Cardiac and hepatic differentiations are routine techniques in our laboratory.
With expertise in molecular biology, molecular genetics, and clinical cardiology, along with strong collaborative networks in Finland and internationally, we have successfully developed facilities and techniques to study iPSCs and established disease models for genetic cardiac conditions.
We are studying cells from patients with various cardiac diseases and have developed a range of methods to detect abnormalities in cell morphology, beating behavior as well as in electrical properties of the cells. Additionally, we investigate the effects of different drugs on patient- and mutation-specific cardiomyocytes and conduct clinical studies where the cell model observations on drug responses are verified in patients.
We are also involved in designing various devices and platforms to modify cell culture conditions, as well as developing software for automated analysis of our in vitro research data. The heart group also explores biomaterials optimized for cultivating cardiomyocytes. Our research group actively collaborates with specialists from diverse fields, including engineering, biomaterials, electrophysiology, cell modeling, and clinical medicine.
