Tomofumi Tanaka

TL;DR: A nongenetic method for mass-producing cardiomyocytes from mouse and human PSC derivatives that is based on the marked biochemical differences in glucose and lactate metabolism between cardiomers and noncardiomyocyte and could facilitate progress toward PSC-based cardiac regenerative therapy.

TL;DR: It is found that a fluorescent dye that labels mitochondria, tetramethylrhodamine methyl ester perchlorate, could be used to selectively mark embryonic and neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, as well as mouse, marmoset and human PSC-derived cardiomers, and that the cells could subsequently be enriched (>99% purity) by fluorescence-activated cell sorting.

TL;DR: While investigating the involvement of BMP signaling in early heart formation in the mouse, it was found that the BMP antagonist Noggin is transiently but strongly expressed in the heart-forming region during gastrulation and acts at the level of induction of mesendoderm to establish conditions conducive to cardiogenesis.

TL;DR: It is shown that recently established human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells represent a promising in vitro model for cardiac electrophysiologic studies and drug screening.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that iPSCs could be useful to characterize LQTS disease as well as drug responses in the LQ TS patient with a novel mutation, which may in turn lead to future progress in personalized medicine.