We’re proud to share our groundbreaking study published in Nature Communications. Our work sheds light on the zebrafish intracardiac nervous system (IcNS)—a local neural network acting as the heart’s “little brain.”
This was a fantastic collaborative effort between teams at Karolinska Institute and Columbia University, spearheaded by the Konstantinos Ampatzis Lab and Kizil Lab. Huge congratulations to all authors involved! 🎉 We are deeply grateful for the support from our funding agencies, whose contributions made this research possible. 🙏
Using cutting-edge techniques like single-cell RNA sequencing, neuroanatomy, and electrophysiology, we uncovered:
- Pacemaker-like neurons capable of autonomously generating rhythmic activity.
- A molecularly diverse IcNS with neurotransmitter systems such as cholinergic, adrenergic, and GABAergic.
Zebrafish hearts, with their human-like qualities, provide an unparalleled model for advancing cardiac research. Our findings lay the groundwork for new therapeutic strategies targeting arrhythmias and heart failure, and even neurological diseases.
📖 Read the full article and its implications here.
Kizil Lab 