Filio Billia

Research Synopsis

• Heart failure is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in North America and has been identified as the second leading cause of extended hospital stays.
• In the adult, cardiomyocytes are post-mitotic terminally differentiated cells that are unable to proliferate. This renders the heart particularly vulnerable to injury. While cell-based therapies continue to attract considerable interest, they are sufficiently problematic. As such, it is exceedingly important to consider alternative approaches that allow the discovery of novel treatment strategies to effectively maintain tissue homeostasis and restrict cardiomyocyte loss.
• Tumour suppressors and coaxing the heart back into a proliferative state for the regulation of normal tissue homeostasis.
• Our concept of preventing cardiomyocyte loss is through the regulation of the cell cycle, either by altering tumour suppressor genes or providing a permissive environment for proliferation, to allow the heart to undergo repair at the site of injury and maintain tissue homeostasis.