Developmental Biology and Regeneration - Group Mercader

Research interest

In our group we are interested in understanding the morphogenetic events leading to epicardium formation. Moreover, we also want to understand how the epicardial derived cells and secreted factor act on the adult heart during homeostasis or upon injury response. We use the zebrafish as a model system, as it offers the possibility to study cardiac development in vivo and because it has a very high capacity to regenerate an injured heart. This allows us to explore the cellular and molecular basis of a naturally occurring mechanism of cardiac regeneration.

cryoinjury zebrafish
Fig. 1: Immunostained section of an adult zebrafish heart 14 days after cryoinjury. A fibrotic scar (green) has formed over the injured region. Ventricular mycardium is shown in red.

 

Contact

Prof. Nadia Mercader
Institute of Anatomy
University of Bern
Baltzerstrasse 2
3012 Bern
Switzerland

Tel. 0041316388477
Email: nadia.mercader@unibe.ch

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