Former Lab Members
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William E. LouchOriginally from from Fall River, Nova Scotia, William studied at 国民彩票 during undergrad (BSc in听Chemistry/Neuroscience, 1997) and graduate school (PhD in Pharmacology with Susan Howlett, 2001).听After postdocing in Leuven, Belgium and then Oslo, Norway, he stayed on in Oslo to establish his own research group. The听group鈥檚 research is focused on the structure and function of听cardiac muscle cells. Cardiac function is tightly controlled by the contraction and relaxation of these cells; processes which are in turn reliant on carefully controlled calcium homeostasis. Cardiac dysfunction during diseases such as heart failure and atrial fibrillation can often be traced to abnormal cellular calcium handling. William's research is aimed at understanding these abnormalities, with focus on the structures and proteins that control calcium cycling. How are these structures and proteins put together during development, and what causes them to disassemble during disease? What is the consequence of such alterations? To examine these questions, the lab combines molecular biology and electrophysiology techniques with advanced 3D imaging (super-resolution, confocal, and electron microscopy). They strive to mechanistically link subcellular structure and calcium handling to whole-heart function, and to reverse dysfunction during disease.鈥嬏� 听 |
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Randi ParksRandi finished her PhD in the Howlett lab in 2014, and is presently a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH.听 Her overall research interest is in calcium signaling within subcellular compartments of the heart, both physiological and pathophysiological.听 Her current postdoctoral research is focused on understanding cardiac mitochondrial calcium flux and how calcium overload mediates mitochondria-triggered cell death via the permeability transition pore.听 Current location: Laboratory of Cardiac Physiology, Cardiovascular Branch, NHLBI, NIH. |
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Michael Sun听Michael moved to Halifax in 2000 and has lived in Halifax since. He completed his undergraduate studies at Saint Mary鈥檚 University in 2011, majoring in Biology and graduating with Honours in Biology. Following graduation, he began a Master鈥檚 of Science degree in Dr. Susan Howlett鈥檚 lab. His Master鈥檚 thesis, 听鈥�The impact of frailty on cardiac contractile function in the mouse model鈥� focused on developing a frailty index in the mouse model, and assessing how frailty predicts cardiac cell morphology and contractile function in mouse hearts. Following his graduate studies, he began medical school at 国民彩票, where he continued to work with Dr. Susan Howlett, developing a heart frailty index (FI-Heart) as part of his Research in Medicine project. Following medical school, Michael's plan is to begin residency training in Internal Medicine and subspecialize in a career in Geriatrics. |
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听 Dr. Scott GrandyDr. Scott Grandy is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health and Human Performance (Kinesiology) and Pharmacology at 国民彩票. He is an affiliate scientist in the Division of Cardiology (Nova Scotia Health Author |