Topic: Personalized Medicine: Manipulation and Sensing of Human Cardio myocytes

The heart completes a complex set of tasks, including the initiation or propagation of an electrical signal with regularity (proper heart rate and rhythm), and generating sufficient force of contraction (contractility). In the heart, gap junctional intercellular communication is a critical part of cellular activities and is necessary for electrical propagation and mechanical diffusion among neighboring cardio myocytes. Disorders of gap junctions are a major cause for cardiac diseases such as ventricular arrhythmia. This talk will introduce the micro devices, robotic systems, and new techniques we have recently developed for automated measurement of the diffusion and conduction functions of gap junctions, and for continuous, long-term measurement of contractility, beating rate, and beating rhythm of hiPS-cardiomyocytes. Drug testing results using these new instruments and techniques will also be discussed.