Research Description

Unlike adult mammals, zebrafish fully regenerate damaged heart muscle within weeks. We exploit this capacity to uncover the genetic, epigenetic, and cellular mechanisms that make adult cardiac regeneration possible. Chromatin regulation is central to embryonic development and differentiation and likely plays an equally important role during regeneration. Our lab investigates how enhancer switching controls cardiomyocyte proliferation, with the hypothesis that toggling key enhancers distinguishes a heart capable of repair from one that is not.

We have a second project studying translation of mRNA during regeneration. mRNA cap-binding proteins are essential across all eukaryotes and so deeply conserved that the human ortholog can rescue viability in yeast. We investigate Eif4e1c, a fish-specific cap-binding protein that fully substitutes for canonical eIF4E yet plays opposing roles during heart and fin regeneration. This functional divergence suggests that selective control of mRNA translation is a critical and underappreciated feature of regeneration in fish.