The Stem Cell Podcast

Ep. 311: “Congenital Heart Disease” Featuring Dr. Deepak Srivastava

Dec 23, 2025
Dr. Deepak Srivastava, President of the Gladstone Institutes, dives deep into congenital heart diseases and his groundbreaking research on cardiac development. He reveals insights from their study on Down syndrome and how it links to heart defects. The discussion includes innovative strategies for heart therapy delivery and the economics behind cell and gene therapies. Additionally, he emphasizes the importance of using AI and organoids to uncover mechanisms of congenital diseases, stressing the need for creativity and collaboration in biomedical research.
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INSIGHT

Tools Unlock Organogenesis

  • New single-cell, AI, and organoid tools let researchers probe organogenesis at unprecedented depth.
  • Deepak Srivastava says these tools open the black box of how whole organs form and morphogenesis occurs.
ANECDOTE

Mosaic iPSCs Yield Clean Controls

  • Srivastava used iPSC lines from mosaic trisomy 21 patients to get isogenic disomic and trisomic controls.
  • That strategy let his team compare valve-region cardiomyocytes within the same genetic background.
INSIGHT

Myocardial Reprogramming Explains AV Defects

  • Trisomy 21 myocardium around the AV junction loses its specialized identity and resembles chamber myocardium.
  • A pooled CRISPR activation screen pinpointed HMGN1 as sufficient to recapitulate that reprogramming.
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