Current Members

Dr. Fadi G. Akar, Ph.D. completed his doctoral degree in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and his post-doctoral training in molecular cardiology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Akar joined the Faculty in the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in 2004, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2007 and Yale University School of Medicine in 2020. Dr. Akar's laboratory is dedicated to uncovering the mechanisms that promote arrhythmias in common structural heart diseases and to develop novel gene-based approaches to prevent these malignant arrhythmias.

Markus Bögner is a Postgraduate Research Fellow and 4th-year medical student from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. Before beginning his medical studies, Markus dedicated 15 months to voluntary service with severely disabled people in Jerusalem, Israel. Following this, he pursued vocational training to become both a surgeon's assistant (CTA) and anesthesiology assistant (ATA). Markus serves as a research assistant in the research group led by PD Dr. Felix Hohendanner at the German Heart Center of Charité. His research focuses on understanding the biochemical and electrophysiological aspects of secretome-related drivers of arrhythmia development, particularly in patients with atrial cardiomyopathy. As a Postgraduate Research Fellow in the Akar Lab, he will focus on mitochondria-targeted gene therapies for arrhythmias.

Marine Cacheux is an Associate Research Scientist whose research has been focused on investigating the mechanisms underlying cardiac and skeletal muscle physiology and pathophysiology. Specifically, her work is dedicated to the study of ion channels and calcium cycling proteins in striated muscle in different pathological contexts. A key interest has been to investigate mechanisms underlying excitation-Contraction Coupling in health and disease, with a focus on the genes and proteins that are directly involved in the handling of intracellular calcium fluxes. Marine has also been interested in the role of calcium signaling in the regulation of cardiac electrophysiological properties and arrhythmias. Her current research is focused on understanding the structural and arrhythmic mechanisms underlying the development of heart failure and sudden cardiac death in the context of a multitude of acquired and inherited conditions. She has extensive expertise in the use of human and mouse primary cells as well as in vivo mouse models mimicking various muscle diseases to study the pathological consequences of gene mutations and altered protein function.

I grew up in Bronxville, NY and headed south to North Carolina for college. I graduated from Duke University in 2017 with a degree in biomedical engineering (biomechanics and bioelectricity concentrations) and a minor in music. As an undergraduate, I did research in cellular mechanobiology. After graduating, I stayed at Duke and worked in molecular cardiology in Howard Rockman's lab, investigating G-protein coupled receptor biophysics in the heart. Currently, I am a graduate student in Professor Stuart Campbell's lab, where I am studying arrhythmias using iPSC-derived engineered heart tissues. Outside of science, I play the piano (mostly classical, a bit of jazz and musical theater), compose, and enjoy road biking.

Jonathan is a Research Associate 1, MS in the Akar lab. He completed his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, double majoring in Biology and Chemistry. Previously, Jonathan conducted research investigating the molecular biological basis underlying various forms of cardiac disease, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarction, diabetic cardiomyopathy, and atrial fibrillation. Currently, Jonathan's work is focused on the intersection between metabolic signaling and cardiac arrhythmias. A major focus is to understanding mechanisms by which AMPK signaling regulates myocyte calcium cycling, excitation-contraction coupling and arrhythmogenic triggers.

Dr. Juan J. Velasco is a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical science. His primary focus lies in the identification of biomarkers and in drug discovery, alongside the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies targeting cardiovascular diseases. His work has been presented at national and international conferences, including the American Heart Association (AHA), the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS), the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), among others. Furthermore, Dr. Velasco’s work has been covered by major media outlets and has received awards from leading organizations. Beyond his research, he has conducted over 70 peer reviews for scientific articles and has served on the editorial board of several scientific journals.

Yancey Williams, II, is a postgraduate associate in the Akar lab. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He studied the dynamics of clathrin-mediated endocytosis under Dr. Mattheyses at UAB. His current work is focused on examining mechanisms underlying arrhythmias in diet induced obesity models. As a Biomedical Engineer, Yancey is also involved in the study of fibrillatory dynamics using in silico computational approaches.