Johns Hopkins University

720 Rutland Avenue Baltimore MD 21220 Ross 1033

Epitranscriptomic, neural, and transcriptional regulation of cardiac development, maturation, and disease

The Tampakakis Laboratory (Division of Cardiology) is recruiting postdoctoral fellows to study the molecular mechanisms governing cardiomyocyte maturation, metabolism, and regeneration. Perinatal cardiomyocytes must switch from glycolysis to mitochondrial oxidative metabolism, assemble their contractile apparatus, and establish autonomic innervation - transitions whose failure underlies congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathy, and whose incomplete recapitulation limits stem cell-based disease modeling and regeneration.

• Epitranscriptomic control of cardiac metabolism and translation - how m6A modifications regulate mitochondrial function, translation, and metabolic maturation.
• The neuron-heart axis - how sympathetic innervation controls cardiomyocyte proliferation and maturation.
• Non-coding genome and transcriptional enhancers- how cis-regulatory enhancer elements control cardiomyocyte maturation and contribute to heart failure.
• Programmable epitranscriptomic editing - dCas
  13-based RNA editing to correct disease alleles in inherited cardiomyopathies.

Approaches: mouse genetics, human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and cardiac organoids, CRISPR/dCas
13 editing, nanopore direct RNA sequencing, single-cell transcriptomics, ribosome profiling, and quantitative imaging, supported by a strong network of Hopkins collaborators.

Qualifications:

Ph.D. and/or M.D. with a background in molecular/cellular biology, developmental biology, stem cells, RNA biology, mouse genetics, or computational genomics.

The lab is NIH- and foundation-funded and mentors fellows toward independence, including individual fellowship (F/K) applications and first-author publications.