Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Our laboratories research how the heart contracts and pumps blood throughout the body. We also research how other muscles such as those in our arms and legs contract to allow us to move. To perform this research, we require the ability to look at the heart and other muscles in a living body. Ultrasound imaging allows us to see the heart contract while it beats and allows us to measure the size of the heart and other muscles. Using this information, we can determine whether a heart is functioning normally or if a muscle has changed size in our many research studies. For example, some of our studies discover specific cellular biochemical and genetic processes that allow a heart to contract normally or determine whether a muscle will be small or large. Using genetic modifications and specific pharmacological compounds, we can identify the specific cellular pathways responsible for regulating heart function and muscle size. Many of our experiments cannot be performed in humans and so we must rely on mice for our investigations. This ultrasound imager performs imaging similar to ultrasound scans for humans but is designed specifically for mice. The technology will allow us to monitor changes in heart function and muscle size when the body is exposed to different stresses such when a muscle becomes damaged from injury. In this way, the technology will support many different types of research in our laboratories at the Muscle Health Research Centre at York University and strengthen our ability to make important discoveries in how heart and other muscles develop, adapt, and survive in response to challenges.