Ira S. Cohen,
Institute Director, Leading Professor of Physiology & Biophysics, and Professor of Medicine

My laboratory focuses on basic mechanisms underlying normal and pathologic cardiac electrophysiology and pharmacology. In recent years research has focused on (1) cardiac pacemaker activity, defining the currents involved in primary and secondary pacemaker function, and their molecular correlates; (2) the role played by the renin- angiotensin system in setting up the gradient in electrical properties across the ventricular wall, (3) the use of viral and stem cell technology to create biological pacemakers to replace electronic ones, and (4) the use of adult stem cells as a gene delivery system to syncytial tissues. The laboratory employs a multidisciplinary approach to these four problems which includes biophysical and molecular techniques.