Mature Chamber Specific Human Cardiomyocytes for High Throughput Cardiotoxicity Testing

Dr. Todd Herron is a faculty member at the University of Michigan and is Director of the Frankel Cardiovascular Regeneration Core Laboratory. His laboratory has made advances in the maturation of hiPSC-CMs and creating high throughput screening for electrophysiology functional analysis. The laboratory derives new patient specific hiPSC lines and routinely differentiates stem cells to the cardiac lineage. The Herron lab uses these cells to study the mechanisms of inherited cardiomyopathies like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In other studies the Herron lab has developed in vitro models of more common cardiomyopathies like ischemic cardiomyopathy that occurs secondary to atherosclerosis (clogged arteries). We aim to utilize hiPSC-CMs to uncover mechanisms of heart disease, to repair failing hearts, and to discover new medicines to treat heart failure. In newer avenues of regenerative medicine, the Herron lab has also started to generate hiPSC derived pancreatic tissue and 3D islets for diabetes research and for the development of regenerative pancreas therapies to cure diabetes.

Anne Sheldrake is Principal Scientist at StemBioSys. In her current role, she manages manufacturing, quality control, and research and development of StemBioSys’ portfolio of products, including primary and iPSC-derived cells and cell-derived extracellular matrices. She has been working on applications of CELLvoTM matrix, StemBioSys’ core technology, for seven years. She is passionate about identifying new applications of cell-derived extracellular matrices and working with collaborators to develop improvements to traditional cell culture methods. In her prior role at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, she worked to identify circulating miRNA biomarkers of bone mineral density in a cohort of baboons. Ms. Sheldrake received her M.S. in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio and B.S. in chemical engineering with honors in bioengineering from the Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University.