Rebekah L. Gundry

Stokes-Shackelford Professor and Chair
Director, Center for Heart and Vascular Research      
BS, 1999, Marquette University
MS, 2001, The George Washington University
PhD, 2006, The Johns Hopkins University
Email

The Gundry laboratory makes discoveries of the human heart - transforming our understanding of what molecules are present in the human heart and how they change in disease.  This new insight fuels our understanding of disease processes and reveals untapped therapeutic targets.  We are also developing new tools and reagents to promote the use of stem cell technologies for improved drug testing and disease modeling.   

To achieve our goals, we develop and apply innovative mass spectrometry (MS) technologies, bioinformatics tools, and methodologies to transform our understanding of cell surface glycoproteins and glycans and answer outstanding questions in stem cell biology and cardiac pathology & disease. We focus on the subset of molecules localized to the cell surface (i.e. the surfaceome), including transmembrane, GPI-anchored, and ECM proteins and glycans because these can be optimally exploited for immunophenotyping, drug targeting, and are critical players in normal cardiac function and disease.

Our platforms specifically promote the development of new reagents and strategies to:
  1) promote the discovery of therapeutic and monitoring strategies for advanced heart failure.
  2) improve the quality and homogeneity of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for research and clinical
      applications

Working at the interface of analytical chemistry, stem cell biology and cardiac physiology, the major tools in our toolbox include protein biochemistry, mass spectrometry, proteomics, metabolomics, glycoproteomics, glycomics, chromatography, immunofluorescence imaging, flow cytometry, and state-of-the art stem cell culturing and differentiation methods.

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Link to Publications