Rebecca Capel

Our research group, run by Dr Rebecca Burton and funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to link together structural, signalling and patient information to improve our understanding of, and treatment options for, heart disease with a particular focus on the atria and sino-atrial node.

My research focusses on the control of calcium and electrical activity in cells of the heart. I am particularly interested in studying how calcium originating in lysosomes, which have traditionally been thought of as waste disposal units, contributes to acute and chronic signalling in health and disease. To do this I use a range of techniques including measuring the electrical and calcium activity from individual heart cells in real time, imaging the substructure of cardiac cells and assessing the proteome of tissue from healthy and diseased patients.

Outside of my laboratory research, I am involved with teaching undergraduate Medical/Biomedical Sciences and MSc Pharmacology students, and in Outreach activities. I passionately believe that Outreach is of central importance to improving uptake of and enthusiasm in the STEM disciplines and helping young people to realise and fulfil their potential. To this end, I work closely with schools, particularly in Hertfordshire, to conduct science days and careers talks and have also spoken as part of the international science festival Pint of Science.