Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day and over 2 billion times a lifetime. The heart keeps up with wear and tear because it has a strong yet flexible cytoskeleton, the 'framework' of the cell. But what happens when the cytoskeleton malfunctions, and more importantly, how do we fix it? On this episode of Beyond the Abstract, Derek and Ellen chat with cell biologist and PhD candidate Brittany MacTaggart about alterations that happen to the cytoskeleton during heart failure and how these changes affect how the heart functions.

Chen et al. Suppression of detyrosinated microtubules improves cardiomyocyte function in human heart failure. Nature Medicine, 2018. 24(8); 1225-1233. PMID: 29892068.