Lab Updates
JMCC Paper of the Year 2020
February, 2021
'Isogenic models of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy unveil differential phenotypes and mechanism-driven therapeutics' chosen as one of the four JMCC papers of the year.
Proteoglycans UK Meeting
January 11th, 2021
James presents work from the lab on the role of perlecan in cardiac disease
BSMB 2020
September 11th 2020
Well done to Ben for giving his first online presentation at the British Society of Matrix Biology
ISSCR 2020, Virtual
June 24-27th, 2020
Not the trip to Boston we had planned, but well done to Ben and Terri for presenting their first posters at ISSCR.
UEA makes new coronavirus test for hundreds more patients a day
23 April, 2020
The Smith Lab was part of a team from Norwich Medical School that set up and performed thousands of additional COVID-19 tests for the NHS
Successful award of AMS springboard grant
January 31st, 2020
Springboard offers a bespoke package of support to biomedical researchers at the start of their first independent post to help launch their research careers. This includes funding of up to £100,000 over two years and access to the Academy’s acclaimed mentoring and career development programme.
PhD Opportunity
Deadline 25th November 2019
Using gene editing and pluripotent stem cells to investigate cardiovascular cell signalling
SMITH_U20DTP
11th International Conference on Proteoglycans
October 2nd, 2019
Professor John Whitelock, UNSW, presents our collaborative work in Kanazawa, Japan.
Ben and Terri join the lab!
October 1st, 2019
The Smith lab welcomes it's first two UEA PhD students!
PhD opportunity
April 26, 2019
Engineering mesenchymal stems cells to investigate how they regulate the tumour microenvironment
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Closing date 31st May 2019
Start date October 2019
PhD opportunity
19 February, 2019
By using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology, this PhD project aims to create new human in vitro models of cardiac fibrosis.
Closing date 31st March 2019
Start date October 2019
Paper Published in Stem Cell Reports
13 November 2018
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is prevalent and complex, yet treatment options have remained largely static for many years. Existing model systems can suffer from species differences and non-physiological gene expression levels. Here, we developed a human model of HCM by harnessing human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) reprogramming and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. By generating hiPSC lines from patients carrying the E99K mutation and a healthy non-carrier relative and then using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, we created a model whereby the mutation had been corrected in two isogenic pairs and introduced in the other. We used these lines to investigate cardiomyocyte function in 3D engineered heart tissues and/or 2D monolayers, measuring contraction, Ca2+ handling and gene expression.
