Topic: The Potential of iPSC-derived Cardiomyocytes to Model both Genetic and Acquired Heart Diseases.

Katriina Aalto-Setälä, MD, PhD is the Professor of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University and a cardiologist at the Heart Hospital, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland. Dr. Aalto-Setälä received her clinical training for internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Tampere. She did her postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University, New York in Prof. John Breslow’s laboratory and also spent a year in Prof. Malcolm Brenner’s laboratory at St Jude Children’s Hospital, Memphis TN. Later she spent a year as a visiting Professor at the Gladstone Institutes in Prof. Bruce Conklin’s laboratory and learned the iPSC technology in Prof. Shinya Yamanaka’s laboratory. Most recent international visit was in Prof. Andrew Marks’s group at the Columbia University, NY and in Prof. Mark Mercola’s group at Stanford University, CA. Currently she has a research laboratory at the of Tampere University and she also works as an invasive cardiologist and is in charge of the genetic cardiac outpatient clinic at the Heart Hospital, Tampere University Hospital.

Her research focuses on human genetic cardiac diseases such as genetic arrhythmias and atherosclerosis with the help of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. The main aim of the research group is to learn more about the basic pathology of the genetic diseases as well as to test current and new pharmaceutical agents to correct the abnormalities. Her research group in collaboration with researches at the Tampere Technical University has also invented new methods to monitor and analyze the maturity and functionality cardiomyocytes.

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