Professor Pascal Lafontant recently recieved
a grant $287,000 from NIH.
// PHOTO COURTESY OF DEPAUW
After receiving a grant of $280,000 from the National Institutes of Health, DePauw biology professor Pascal Lafontant has awarded students with more opportunities for hands-on research regarding heart regeneration in fish such as the giant danio and the zebra fish.
Lafontant has been a professor at DePauw since 2006. He received his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences in cardiovascular science at the Baylor College of Medicine with initial intentions of being a biomedical engineer, with interests in designing mechanical heart replacements.
“When I started to do more clinical stuff,” Lafontant said, “I started to see the complexity of the heart as a biological entity as opposed to just a mechanical one.”
Because of this revelation, Lafontant began to study how one can reactivate cells in the heart for organ regeneration, and has been doing so for the past eight years.
Both the zebra fish and the giant danio have the ability to rengenerate their hearts, depending on the injuries they receive. The ultimate goal for studying their hearts is to apply their regeneration abilities to human hearts.
“The idea is that if we can understand how the fish can do it, maybe we can apply it and try to see if we can reactivate disabilities in humans,” explained Lafontant.
This lofty goal seems more attainable now that Lafontant has been granted $280,000 to aid The Heart Lab’s research of coronary vessels during the stages of development and regeneration. The grant will fund new equipment needed for the work, in addition to admitting more students into the lab.
“In general, I typically have anywhere from four to seven students in the lab every semester working on different projects,” Lafontant said.
Now, this number is expected to double.
Lafontant studies the regenerative nature of zebrafish
heart because rather than scarring, new tissue is formed.
// PHOTO COURTESY OF DEPAUW
“It will fund 15 students over three years, so I can physically have five students per summer or per year, for three years,” explains Lafontant.
As both a researcher and a professor, Lafontant exudes joy for the work he does and desires that joy to be reflected by his students.
“The processes that I study, I find them fascinating," Lafontant said. "How can you re-grow a heart? How can you grow new vessels to bring blood? All of the classes that I teach tend to be in cell biology and physiology. I find that exciting, so I try my best to make it exciting to students, too.”
Evidently, excitement is not lacking in regards to The Heart Lab’s final goal for studying heart regeneration. And now with Lafontant’s grant, the goal seems even more in-reach.