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Engineering biosynthetic excitable tissues from unexcitable cells for electrophysiological and cell therapy studies

Patch-clamp recordings are used to study the function of ion channels, but the method does not allow the assessment of tissue-level function. Kirkton and Bursac introduce a biosynthetic system for the study of channel activity and electrical conduction, facilitating studies of ion channel function.

Robert D. Kirkton
Nenad Bursac
Research10 May 2011
Nature Communications

Volume: 2, P: 1-9
Ddx61-enriched condensates refine heart regeneration programs

Pronobis et al. show that Ddx61 localizes to P-bodies and regulates heart muscle proliferation during cardiac regeneration in zebrafish. Ddx61 is required is required to restrain expression of Chordin, a secreted BMP inhibitor that impedes regeneration if present at high levels.

Mira I. Pronobis
Sophia DeLuca
Kenneth D. Poss
ResearchOpen Access09 Oct 2025
Nature Communications

Volume: 16, P: 1-13
Author Correction: Engineered bacterial voltage-gated sodium channel platform for cardiac gene therapy

Hung X. Nguyen
Tianyu Wu
Nenad Bursac
Amendments and CorrectionsOpen Access16 Nov 2023
Nature Communications

Volume: 14, P: 1
Development and modeling of cardiac autonomic innervation

Patsy et al. review the relationship between the heart and the nervous system during development and the functional consequences of cardiac innervation. They describe the generation of cardiomyocytes and autonomic neurons and propose a roadmap toward the development of cardiac innervation models.

Marisa Patsy
Kyle Ge
Nenad Bursac
Reviews05 Dec 2025
Nature Cardiovascular Research

Volume: 4, P: 1598-1615
Engineered bacterial voltage-gated sodium channel platform for cardiac gene therapy

In this in vitro, in silico, and in vivo study Nguyen and colleagues show that specific and stable viral gene delivery of engineered prokaryotic voltage-gated sodium channels (BacNav) to cardiomyocytes can directly augment cardiac tissue excitability and conduction.

Hung X. Nguyen
Tianyu Wu
Nenad Bursac
ResearchOpen Access02 Feb 2022
Nature Communications

Volume: 13, P: 1-17
The NIH Somatic Cell Genome Editing program

This Perspective discusses how the Somatic Cell Genome Editing Consortium aims to accelerate the implementation of safe and effective genome-editing therapies in the clinic.

Krishanu Saha
Erik J. Sontheimer
Jiangbing Zhou
ReviewsOpen Access07 Apr 2021
Nature

Volume: 592, P: 195-204
BRG1 is a biomarker of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in human heart specimens

Jacob C. Scherba
Marc K. Halushka
Carolyn Glass
ResearchOpen Access17 May 2022
Scientific Reports

Volume: 12, P: 1-7
Meteorin-like is an injectable peptide that can enhance regeneration in aged muscle through immune-driven fibro/adipogenic progenitor signaling

Lee et al. demonstrate the protein Meteorin-like can rejuvenate the body’s immune system to enhance muscle regeneration in old age – in part by inducing the death of pro-fibrotic mesenchymal progenitor cells within the muscle.

David E. Lee
Lauren K. McKay
James P. White
ResearchOpen Access09 Dec 2022
Nature Communications

Volume: 13, P: 1-13
Mesoscopic hydrogel molding to control the 3D geometry of bioartificial muscle tissues

Weining Bian
Brian Liau
Nenad Bursac
Protocols24 Sept 2009
Nature Protocols

Volume: 4, P: 1522-1534
Engineering human pluripotent stem cells into a functional skeletal muscle tissue

The generation of functional skeletal muscle tissue from human pluripotent stem cells has not been reported. Here, the authors describe engineering of contractile skeletal muscle bundles in culture, which become vascularized and maintain functionality when transplanted into mice.

Lingjun Rao
Ying Qian
Nenad Bursac
ResearchOpen Access09 Jan 2018
Nature Communications

Volume: 9, P: 1-12
Incorporation of macrophages into engineered skeletal muscle enables enhanced muscle regeneration

Adult skeletal muscle, engineered from adult-rat myogenic cells, self-repairs after injury in vitro and when implanted in a mouse dorsal skinfold window-chamber model when the tissue incorporates rat or human macrophages.

Mark Juhas
Nadia Abutaleb
Nenad Bursac
Research01 Oct 2018
Nature Biomedical Engineering

Volume: 2, P: 942-954
The extracellular matrix protein agrin promotes heart regeneration in mice

The extracellular matrix protein agrin promotes cardiac regeneration in adult mice after myocardial infarction; it modulates cardiac differentiation and proliferation by interacting with the dystrophin–glycoprotein complex, Yap and ERK-mediated signalling.

Elad Bassat
Yara Eid Mutlak
Eldad Tzahor
Research05 Jun 2017
Nature

Volume: 547, P: 179-184
Engineering prokaryotic channels for control of mammalian tissue excitability

Restoring lost excitability of injured tissue is a paramount of regenerative medicine. By using a combined expression of bacterial voltage-gated Na⁺ channel, Kir2.1, and connexin-43 in non-excitable human fibroblasts, here the authors generate excitable cells that rescue action potential conduction in an in vitromodel of cardiac fibrosis.

Hung X. Nguyen
Robert D. Kirkton
Nenad Bursac
ResearchOpen Access18 Oct 2016
Nature Communications

Volume: 7, P: 1-11
Cardiopatch platform enables maturation and scale-up of human pluripotent stem cell-derived engineered heart tissues

Cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells could be used to generate cardiac tissues for regenerative purposes. Here the authors describe a method to obtain large bioengineered heart tissues showing advanced maturation, functional features and engraftment capacity.

Ilya Y. Shadrin
Brian W. Allen
Nenad Bursac
ResearchOpen Access28 Nov 2017
Nature Communications

Volume: 8, P: 1-15
Three-dimensional tissue-engineered human skeletal muscle model of Pompe disease

Wang et al. describe the development of a 3D in vitro model of human skeletal muscle that recapitulates the pathophysiology of Pompe disease. They further define a Pompe disease-specific transcriptional signature, confirm its presence in the Pompe myobundles, and detect a partial reversal of the signature upon in vitro treatment of myobundles with rhGAA.

Jason Wang
Chris J. Zhou
Nenad Bursac
ResearchOpen Access05 May 2021
Communications Biology

Volume: 4, P: 1-14
Developmental stage-dependent effects of cardiac fibroblasts on function of stem cell-derived engineered cardiac tissues

Brian Liau
Christopher P. Jackman
Nenad Bursac
ResearchOpen Access09 Feb 2017
Scientific Reports

Volume: 7, P: 1-11
Rapid fusion between mesenchymal stem cells and cardiomyocytes yields electrically active, non-contractile hybrid cells

Ilya Y. Shadrin
Woohyun Yoon
Nenad Bursac
ResearchOpen Access10 Jul 2015
Scientific Reports

Volume: 5, P: 1-15
Tissue-engineered 3-dimensional (3D) microenvironment enhances the direct reprogramming of fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes by microRNAs

Yanzhen Li
Sophie Dal-Pra
Victor J. Dzau
ResearchOpen Access12 Dec 2016
Scientific Reports

Volume: 6, P: 1-11
Generation and customization of biosynthetic excitable tissues for electrophysiological studies and cell-based therapies

This protocol describes stable conversion of unexcitable cell lines and primary cells into electrically excitable and actively conducting tissues with customizable phenotypes for in vitro electrophysiological studies and in vivo cell therapy applications.

Hung X Nguyen
Robert D Kirkton
Nenad Bursac
Protocols05 Apr 2018
Nature Protocols

Volume: 13, P: 927-945

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