Department of Internal Medicine
Cardiovascular Division
Research Opportunities

 

J. Randall Moorman, MD 
The Molecular Basis of Cardiac Excitability

The focus of my research is on regulation of cardiac rhythm and of molecular mechanisms of membrane excitability. Three sets of projects are underway.  We are
  • investigating the physiological role of phospholemman, a major membrane substrate for protein kinases in heart and other excitable tissue. We have found that it forms ion channels selective for the osmolyte taurine, and that it plays a role in the regulation of cell volume.

  • studying the modulation of cardiac, brain, and skeletal muscle Na channels by protein kinases, particularly the kinase that is abnormal in the human illness myotonic muscular dystrophy.

  • testing the hypothesis that monitoring of heart rate variability leads to the early diagnosis of infectious illnesses in newborn infants.

The techniques used in the laboratory include molecular cloning, patch clamping of cultured cells and cells from transgenic mouse models, novel measurements of cell volume, and mathematical analysis of time series.