Rahul Yadav
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
The intracellular second messenger 3ʹ, 5ʹ-cAMP plays a key role in regulating various cellular functions throughout the body. In the heart, it helps manage the fight-or-flight response by affecting the heart's rate and strength of contraction when activated by b-adrenergic receptors. cAMP is produced by enzymes called adenylyl cyclases and broken down by a group of enzymes known as phosphodiesterases (PDEs). There are 11 types of PDEs, and cardiac myocytes specifically express several types from the PDE1, PDE2A, PDE3, PDE4, and PDE8 families. These PDEs control cAMP levels in very small areas within the cell, creating nanodomains with different cAMP concentrations, and my work focuses on finding the targets of different PDE isoforms and to understand their locations and roles within the cell.