Kushner Lab

A major focus of the Kushner lab is to improve our understanding how contractile strength in the heart is controlled. Therapies that increase the strength of heart contraction are critical for treating patients with cardiogenic shock. However, their use is limited in patients with chronic heart failure due to an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmia, which can be life-threatening. Using a technique called proximity proteomics, the Kushner lab has mapped protein interaction networks in a key subcellular domain, sometimes called the cardiac dyad. Dyad proteins govern the strength cardiac contractility by regulating fluxes of intracellular and extracellular Calcium during the cardiac cycle. With a fuller understanding of how cardiac contraction is regulated, we aim to develop targeted therapies that increase contractile strength without the increased risk of arrhythmia. 

Additional projects focus on inherited cardiomyopathies and the regulation of contractility in blood vessels, which has implications for the development hypertension (high blood pressure) and life-limiting symptoms in patients with heart failure.