Whitney Edwards, PhD
Assistant Professor
About
Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are characterized by structural malformations that arise from perturbations in the molecular programs that regulate heart development. CHD is the most common birth defect, affecting approximately 1% of all live births. Despite the prevalence of CHDs, the underlying cause remains unknown in most cases. My lab’s overarching goal is to identify the cellular processes essential for cardiac development and determine how these processes are altered in CHDs. We use a multifaceted approach to investigate molecular mechanisms of cardiogenesis, including mammalian cell culture, genetic mouse models, biochemical/molecular studies, and transcriptomics. In addition, the lab emphasizes a proteomics-based approach to investigate the contribution of 1) protein expression dynamics, 2) protein interactions, and 3) post-translation regulation to heart development.