Home Department: undeclared
Supported by: Dean of Research
Mentor: Patricia Nguyen, Medicine (Cardiovascular)

Zach is studying hereditary cardiomyopathy: a disease inherited from parents that causes a weakening of the heart muscle, which in turn weakens the pumping action of the heart. He is studying a type of cardiomyopathy that is caused by a mutation in the phospholamban (PLN) gene. He is using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), stem cells made from the blood of a patient with the disease, and turns them into heart cells, or cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs). He then uses the iPSC-CMs to study and correct the mutation that causes the disease.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 26, 2015:

Modeling Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy with Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Zachary Sorey¹, Ioannis Karakikes¹, Vittavat Termglinchan¹, Timon Seeger¹, Joseph Wu¹, Patricia Nguyen¹
[Cardiovascular Institute¹, Stanford University]