Glen F. Tibbits

BEd, MSc, PhD

Investigator, BC Children's Hospital
Canada Research Chair in Molecular Cardiac Physiology (2004-2018)

Although the neonate heart is completely responsible for delivering blood to the body, it is still immature in many respects. This is particularly true of the cardiac contractile system and its regulatory mechanisms. The strength of cardiac contraction is determined by the amount of calcium (Ca2+) delivered to the contractile element. Thus the levels of Ca2+ inside each cell (or cardiomyocyte) rise and fall each beat, and peak value can vary substantially in response to physiological needs and/or hormones such as adrenaline. How this is achieved in the neonate heart, although poorly understood, is quite different from the adult heart. This has clinical implications; for example, in children with congenital heart disease (present in 1% of live births), the heart must often be arrested during surgical correction. However, these techniques are largely derived from our understanding of the adult heart. We hope to improve the success rate of surgical correction, and better understand “normal” heart development and the deviations that occur in congenital heart diseases.