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Dr. Emilia Entcheva’s
Lab
Unjoo Lee
About her
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She is an associate Professor
Director, Cardiac Cell Engineering Lab
About her
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She is interested in cardiac cell function by
integrating experimental and theoretical
components
http://www.bme.sunysb.edu/bme/people/faculty/e_entcheva.html
About her
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She uses in vitro primary cell culture system, combined
with nano- and microfabricated scaffolds and state-of-theart fast optical mapping techniques for imaging cardiac
electromechanics and structure.
Her lab develops and validates image-processing algorithms
and biophysically realistic computational models to interpret
the experimental findings and to provide insight in cardiac
cell and tissue function and pathologies.
The functional characterization of the engineered tissue
constructs in her lab and the direct testing and validation of
computational models of cardiac cell function make this
work especially valuable in outlining basic cellular
responses for tissue engineering and tissue repair efforts.
She aims to establish a comprehensive model for studies of
electrically or mechanically-triggered arrhythmogenesis and
ways to prevent, modulate or terminate the undesired
electrical abnormalities in the heart.
About her lab
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Key Research Areas:
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Optical mapping of excitation
Signal and image processing
Cardiac cell and tissue engineering
Mechanisms of arrhythmias
Members
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2 post-Docs
3 Ph.D. students
5 under students
About her projects
Excitable Hybrid Automata (NSF grant
CCF05-23863)
http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~eha
 Bioelectricity in Hybrid Microstructured
Cardiac Tissue (NSF grant BES05-3336)
BESC
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About her projects
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Excitable Hybrid Automata
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Systems biology
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An important open problem in systems biology is
finding appropriate computational models that scale
well for both the simulation and formal analysis of
biological processes.
Large and complex sets of nonlinear differential
equations, describing in painful detail the underlying
biological phenomena.
This project seeks to develop a hybridautomata (HA) approach to modeling and
analyzing complex biological systems, in
aprticular, excitable cell networks.
About her projects
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Excitable Hybrid Automata
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Details of the Project
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Reaction-diffusion PDE systems
Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) formalism describing ion
channel gating and currents
Initial results indicate that HA models, combining
discrete and continuous processes, are able to
successfully capture the morphology of the excitation
event (action potential) of different cell types,
including cardiac cells.
They can also reproduce typical excitable cell
characteristics, such as refractoriness (period of nonresponsiveness to external stimulation) and
restitution (adaptation to pacing rates).
About her projects
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Excitable Hybrid Automata
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Details of the Project
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Multicellular ensembles of HA elements are used to
simulate excitation wave propagation, including
complex spiral waves underlying pathological
conditions in the heart.
The resulting simulation framework exhibits
significantly improved computational efficiency, and
opens the possibility to formal analysis based on HA
theory.
About her projects
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Bioelectricity in Hybrid Microstructured Cardiac
Tissue
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Cardiomyocytes, the main working and bioelectricitygenerating cells in the heart exist and function in a
social context of mesenchymal cells (mainly fibroblasts).
Only recently, we start to ascribe to these non-excitable
cell partners roles far beyond “space fillers” and “passive
followers”. Cell communication and cell signaling events
between different cell types are being recognized as
important modulators in excitability and the propagation
of electrical waves, and particularly in pathophysiological
conditions.
The long-term research goal of the PI is to contribute to
and update the field of bioelectricity, including its
educational aspect, by cross-fertilization with nontraditional design tools - cell/tissue engineering
techniques and novel imaging modalities.
About her projects
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Bioelectricity in Hybrid Microstructured Cardiac Tissue
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In this study, the PI proposes to develop advanced engineering
techniques for designing cardiac microstructured hybrid
networks (consisting of spatially patterned cardiomyocytes, CM,
and fibroblasts, FB) and for imaging their bioelectric response
with very high spatio-temporal resolution. Two specific
hypothesis-driven projects will be undertaken to demonstrate
the utility of this engineered hybrid cell platform to cardiac
disease. First, we will tackle a fundamental bioelectricity
question about the interaction between excitable and nonexcitable cells in the heart and the contribution of
mechanically-elicited events in electrical wave propagation in a
controlled setting, using microscale electromechanical mapping.
Second, we will characterize autocrine/paracrine modulation of
cardiac bioelectricity by a class of locally-released signaling
molecules (typically under increased load) - natriuretic
peptides, NP, and the role of this cell signaling in arrhythmia
induction/prevention.
About her projects
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Bioelectricity in Hybrid Microstructured Cardiac
Tissue
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The microstructured hybrid cardiac model and the
specialized imaging tools, developed here, are directly
applicable for basic studies in a wide range of research
endeavors towards improving human health: 1) heart
regeneration efforts: understanding transplant
integration, cell signaling between native myocardium
and newly introduced cells (stem cells, skeletal muscle
cells, transfected fibroblasts), guided cell differentiation
via cell signaling; 2) models of heart disease, involving
hybrid cellular settings: fibrosis, cardiac hibernation;
cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure; and 3) controlled
models of the normal heart – understanding how
different cell types communicate in side-by-side
experiment-computer model validation.
About her projects
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Bioelectricity in Hybrid Microstructured Cardiac Tissue
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The intellectual merit of the proposed research lies in the
development of unique experimental tools for the precise
manipulation of proteins and living cells and for their
functional characterization for the better understanding of
basic biosystem responses during dynamic inter-cellular
interactions.
The educational aspect of this project involves the translation
of research into an enticing learning experience by
incorporation of the developed here novel experimental
components in teaching modules for an undergraduate
Bioelectricity class, alongside with traditionally taught concepts;
participants in Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and
a team of the Senior Design class will take active role in this
translation process through PI-coordinated efforts. The broader
impact of the results of this project for the scientific
community and the society will come with improving
fundamental understanding of cardiac bioelectricity in a
complex cellular context.