Home Department: Biology
Mentor: Joseph Woo (Cardiothoracic Surgery)

“Mapping the Inflammatory Immune Response in a Mammalian Model of Acute Myocardial Infarction"

More than ten million lives around the world are taken by ischemic heart disease each year, making it the leading cause of death worldwide. Because little is known about the role of the immune system in neonatal cardiac regeneration after myocardial infarction (MI), Akash’s project will use a new multiplexed immunofluorescence assay, CO-detection by-indEXing (CODEX), to illuminate the spatiotemporal role of cellular neighborhoods in and around the infarcted region in a mammalian model of post-MI myocardial regeneration. This project will characterize the different phases of immune response post-MI, which will inform targeted treatments to promote regenerative immune function and improve post-MI outcomes across various ethnic groups.