Leo Wan, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer, collaborated on cardiac cell research recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.   

The study, led by a developmental biologist at Albany Medical Center, investigated molecular mechanisms of cardiac cell orientation and the significance of that process in early heart development. 

Wan’s research has been focused on the chirality, or “handedness” of cells. He has found that the healthy development and looping of the heart depend on chirality of cells. He has also discovered that some diseases, like diabetes, cause cells to reverse orientation.