Ciencia Puerto Rico

The main goal of my research team is to understand the mechanisms by which local and global calcium signals regulate excitation-contraction coupling and excitation-transcription coupling in arterial smooth muscle cells during physiological and pathological conditions. To tackle these issues, we employ several state-of-the-art techniques including molecular biology, patch-clamp electrophysiology, and confocal and Total Internal Reflections Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy.  We are currently interested in determining the mechanisms by which hyperglycemia induces the activation of a novel calcium signaling modality (persistent calcium sparklets) in arterial smooth muscle. We think that the activation of this signal contributes to enhanced contractility and arterial dysfunction during diabetes.