Kyung Chan (Kc) Park

Focus: Cellular physiology of the cardiac myocyte

My longstanding interest in the biology of the heart led me to focus on a range of topics pertaining to cardiovascular science during my undergraduate degree (Biomedical Sciences, King’s College London; First Class Honours). Under the supervision of Professor Michael Marber, my dissertation considered cardiac troponin as a commonly used biomarker, but an imperfect, index of myocardial injury (see review).

After graduating in 2015, I subsequently joined the laboratory of Professor Michael Shattock at the Rayne Institute (BHF Centre of Research Excellence, King’s College London) on a Physiological Society Studentship, primarily to identify stimulators of the cardiac Na/K ATPase. During the studentship, I also assessed the cardioprotective effects of thrombopoietin against ischaemia/reperfusion injury (Dr Michael Curtis) and studied the role of action potential restitution on arrhythmogenesis (Dr James Winter; see editorial comment).

In 2016, I commenced the British Heart Foundation 4-Year Non-Clinical PhD Studentship in Cardiovascular Science at the University of Oxford, as a Postgraduate Student of The Queen’s College. After a rotation project with Associate Professor Craig Lygate (Cardiac Energetics Group), I joined the Department in 2017 as a DPhil student of Associate Professor Pawel Swietach. The Group’s research focusses on the role of pH and calcium in the physiology of the heart and cancer. In keeping with these interests, under co-supervision from Dr Nicola Smart, my doctoral research will investigate the effects of metabolic acidoses associated with inborn errors of metabolism on cardiac physiology. In particular, I will explore the effects of propionic acid and its derivatives on the heart at the molecular, cellular, and organ-level. By combining techniques in electrophysiology, bioinformatics, imaging, and molecular biology, I hope to gain a greater understanding of how pH affects cardiac physiology in health and disease.

Key experimental approaches

Patch-Clamping

Langendorff Heart Perfusion