Thomas Juan Understanding how heart valves function

Fluid flows and embryonic development

“I work on the functioning of the cardiovascular system, more specifically the heart valves, whose defects can lead to heart malformations and a risk of premature death in infants. My goal is to develop a new heart rate and blood flow monitoring system to study the mechanisms that allow certain heart cells to sense blood flow.”Dr. Juan was interested in establishing the left/right asymmetry of organisms using the zebrafish model. In vertebrates, asymmetry starts from a specialized embryonic organ whose cells, using their cilia, establish a flow of fluid essential to breaking symmetry. Dr. Juan showed that vesicle transport by the flow of this organ was correlated with breaking symmetry. He also used different genetic approaches to establish evidence for the conservation of certain mechanisms for establishing left/right asymmetry during evolution, from the fruit fly to vertebrates. These mechanisms are apparently based on the action of unconventional myosins, which are fundamental for the establishment of laterality in animals. Dr. Juan is continuing his study of flow with the analysis of blood flow, which is essential for the establishment of functional heart valves. He focuses in detail on the role of hemodynamic forces on valve formation.