Tapan K. Chatterjee Memorial Fund

Research focus:  Heart failure is the leading cause of death in the US. The heart is composed of cells that sometimes can be thrown out of balance and become dysfunctional. With my work, I am investigating how heart cells function, specifically looking at the mechanisms that they implement to dispose of unwanted proteins, throughout the embryonic stage up to the adult stage. I focus on one such mechanism that implements a molecular complex whose main role is to recognize specific proteins and tag them for disposal. With my work, we can discover novel mechanisms of heart failure to design new avenues for treatment.