Facilities

The Howlett laboratory is fully equipped to investigate myocardial function.  Our state-of-the-art facilities to can investigate heart function across the life course at all levels, from in vivo mouse studies to experiments at the cellular and sub-cellular levels.  In addition to access to shared resources through our Core Facilities, we have expertise in the following research techniques: 

• Assessment of overall health (fitness/frailty) with our novel frailty index tools
• In vivo heart imaging with echocardiography
• In vivo blood pressure monitoring with tail cuff and telemetry techniques
• In vivo electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring
• Langendorff-perfused and working heart studies
• Voltage and patch clamp studies in isolated cardiac myocytes
• Measurement of contraction and sarcomere length in living heart cells
• Imaging intracellular calcium levels with fluorescence systems (fura-2 and fluo-4)
• Imaging subcellular calcium release events (calcium sparks) with confocal microscopy
• Simulated ischemia and reperfusion in isolated cardiac myocytes
• Biochemical and molecular studies of calcium handling proteins