Comparative Cardiac Regeneration and Development LAB

Understanding Cardiac Regeneration

The Lafontant Lab is a research lab in the Biology Department at DePauw University. Undergraduate student-researchers investigate mechanisms of cardiovascular development, cardiac regeneration, tissue remodeling and inflammation, using zebrafish and giant danio as main biomedical models. Understanding how these fish develop and regenerate their hearts could provide insight into new approaches for the prevention or treatment of heart diseases and heart failure.

Undergraduate students in the lab use research instruments that include:

  • a Zeiss AxioImager M2 with Apotome.2 for optical sectioning,
  • aquatic systems and tanks for the breeding and rearing of giant danios and zebrafish
  • a home-build fish exercise chamber
  • tissue culture hoods
  • tissue processing and histology equipments
  • Leica 1900 cryostat for tissue sectioning
  • an Accuri 6 flow cytometer
  • a microinjector-micromanipulator system
  • two Nikon epifluorescence microscopes
  • dissecting microscopes
  • thermocyclers for PCR
  • DNA sequencers
  • a dedicated workstation with Amira 6 for image analysis and visualization.

Support:

NIH R15 HD084262-01, PI

NSF CC 1659259 (Co-PI)

DePauw FDC, PDF

P.I. Pascal J. Lafontant

Associate Professor of Biology

Ph.D, M.S., Baylor College of Medicine

M.S. Biomedical Engineering, Hartford Graduate Center

B.S. Biological Engineering, Cornell University

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