Trishalee Gungoosingh
Research Assistant in Developmental and Regenerative Medicine
I did my undergraduate studies in Pharmacology at UCL and did a Master’s by Research in Neuroscience at The University of Edinburgh before joining Dr Filipa Simões' team.
With the Simões group, we are investigating the role of macrophages in cardiac tissue regeneration using zebrafish, an animal that has the ability to regenerate its heart post-injury, unlike humans. Macrophages mediate scar formation, a key repair process which unfortunately constraints tissue regeneration. Concurrently, macrophages can directly promote cardiac tissue regeneration. To understand how macrophages regulate the balance between these two processes in zebrafish, we will use a combination of techniques, including an omics approach, to probe how different sub-populations of macrophages respond and function in the cardiac microenvironment following injury. This can thus provide valuable insight into how to improve the regenerative potential of the human heart.