Dr Nathan Palpant

Heart muscle cells fail to pump effectively when stressed by disease conditions like heart failure. My research has shown that enhancing the interaction in the troponin complex, which controls heart cell contraction, improves cardiac pump performance under disease conditions. We screened for cyclic peptides that enhance interactions of the troponin complex and identified TROP-L01. Studies indicate that TROP-L01 crosses the membrane of heart cells and improves contraction of human heart cells without any adverse effects on relaxation or excitation-contraction coupling. We aim to advance studies to assess safety and efficacy of TROP-L01 as novel treatment for failing hearts.