In heart muscle cells, excitation-contraction coupling (ECC) ensures that electrical stimulation triggers force production at every beat. My research focuses on understanding ECC mechanisms in a quantitative way. Doing so allows us to understand the progression of heart disease, and consequently their prevention and/or treatment. 

ECC is interesting to me because it involves intricate interactions between cellular organisation and function, as well as electrical (action potentials and ionic currents), chemical (mainly calcium) and physical (contraction) biological events. How the cell is able to fine tune such a complex and inherently unstable system through all of our daily activities always amazes me!

To study cardiac ECC, I mainly use electrophysiology to record electrical activity and high resolution imaging to capture intracellular calcium dynamics, as well as cell structure and protein distribution. I develop bespoke signal and image analysis algorithms to make measurements from my data, and computer modelling to bring my (and others') data together and develop an integrated understanding of ECC.