Presentation
Cardiovascular disease stands out as one of the major complications requiring medical intervention in infants, yet the molecular mechanisms that cause heart malformation are often not well understood. A major reason for this is that the molecular identity of the earliest cardiovascular cell types in the developing embryo has remained obscure.
In a landmark study, we recently reported the first comprehensive molecular profiles of cardiovascular progenitor cells in early mouse embryos (Science 2018). Building on our highly complementary expertise, we now want to discover the molecular pathways that are dysregulated when major heart development genes are mutated, taking advantage of state-of-the-art mutant models and single cell genomics expertise at ULB and Cambridge respectively.
The expected results will lay the foundation for further mechanistic studies, and be directly relevant to improve our understanding of congenital heart disease in newborn babies.
Promoters
- Bertie Gottgens, Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge
- Cédric Blanpain, Faculty of Medicine, ULB