Ryan Stowers
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Heart muscle diseases called cardiomyopathies change the physical feel of heart tissue. In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM, a thickened heart wall) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM, an enlarged, weakened heart), the extracellular matrix (ECM), the protein scaffold around cells, is remodeled and scarred.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Materials Science
Physiology
- Topics
cardiomyopathy
viscoelasticity
extracellular matrix
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2026
What they work on
- Determine whether cardiomyopathy-driven remodeling of the extracellular matrix alters myocardial viscoelasticity, by mechanically testing human DCM and HCM heart tissue and pig disease-model tissue.
- Assess how much extracellular matrix remodeling contributes to the mechanical changes measured in diseased heart muscle compared with healthy tissue.
- Test whether matrix viscoelasticity regulates cardiomyocyte phenotype and function, by culturing normal and HCM-mutant hiPSC-derived heart cells on hydrogels with tunable viscoelasticity.
More about the research
Scarred tissue is known to be stiffer. Tissue is also viscoelastic, though: like putty, it partly flows and absorbs energy when pushed. How heart viscoelasticity changes in disease, and how heart muscle cells respond to it, is unknown.
Why it matters
For patients with hypertrophic or dilated cardiomyopathy, the findings could help doctors read imaging tests such as ultrasound elastography more fully, by treating viscoelasticity as a marker of disease progression. Culture systems that mimic diseased tissue mechanics, combined with patient-specific stem cell models, could also help researchers identify new therapeutic targets.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Joseph Powers
University of Washington, WA·Biophysics·Early-career
Test whether loss of Filamin C (FLNC), a protein linking the heart cell's contractile units to its surroundings, disrupts inside-out force transmission by altering filament lattice geometry in mouse cardiomyocytes, using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and multiscale modeling.
Francesca Briganti
University of California-San Diego, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Test candidate miRNAs in stem-cell-derived heart muscle cells (iPSC-CMs) carrying DCM variants in PLN, RBM20 or TNNT2, to find the mechanisms by which they improve contraction.
Brenda Ogle
University of Minnesota, MN·Biomedical Engineering
Identify growth factors secreted by epicardial progenitor cells that boost proliferation of hiPSC-derived heart muscle cells, using gene editing and high-throughput proteomics in a 3D-printed layered cardiac tissue.
The school
University of California-Santa Barbara: 17 labs on PI Pages, $303M a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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