Luke McSpadden, BS
My research
is focused on understanding the effect of heterogeneities on electrical
conduction in cardiac tissue. It is known that fibrosis of the heart
creates a heterogeneous substrate which is prone to arrhythmia.
I model this in vitro by creating cardiac monolayers with structural
or cellular heterogeneities. Using voltage sensitive dyes and a
504 channel photodiode array, I am able to study the propagation
of electrical signals through the monolayers. This allows me to
understand how different heterogeneities affect conduction velocity,
action potential duration, and reentry formation.
lcm12@duke.edu