NCE (Year 4)

In this reporting period, we verified the role of small conductance Ca2+-activated K+ (SK) channels in intracellular Ca2+ release by demonstrating the co-localization of the SK channels with receptors mediating Ca2+ release from the intracellular store. We have also demonstrated that the observed increase in the number of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocyte with fast pacemaking frequency induced by SK activation may be due to an increase in the number of cardiomyocytes with a fast Ca2+-clock that drives the pacemaking function. With additional small molecules, we have improved the cardiomyocyte yield over the most efficient published protocol that regulates the Wnt pathway.