The Palatinus Laboratory

The Palatinus Laboratory’s Research: Sudden cardiac death remains the most common cause of natural death in the United States, affecting 300,000-400,000 people per year. A common finding in the hearts of victims of sudden cardiac death is a loss of the normal distribution of ion channels and gap junctions within the heart muscle. A major mechanism behind aberrant localization of these critical ion channels in the diseased heart is a loss of trafficking to their intended location. There are no current therapies that target this protein trafficking defect to treat or prevent arrhythmias or sudden cardiac death. The Palatinus lab is translationally focused on preventing sudden cardiac death by rescuing this protein trafficking defect in the heart. Our lab utilizes a variety of techniques, state-of-the-art high resolution confocal microscopy, molecular biology and live cell imaging as well as transgenic murine models to investigate this trafficking defect. Currently our focus is on targeting this trafficking defect to rescue the cardiomyopathy and sudden death observed in a mouse model of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy with the eventual goal to bring these therapeutic strategies to the bedside for preventing sudden cardiac death and treating cardiac arrythmias.