What is CellTalk-HHD?
CellTalk-Human Heart Development is a BBSRC funded consortium established to find out more about how cells come together to build the heart as it grows inside the womb. We focus on cell type location and communication at tissue scales using donated human and animal tissue, large-scale data analysis, and stem cells.
Cells come together to form cardiac niches
The heart forms through many different events. These are thought to happen because of different types of cells coming together to form communities and neighbourhoods that we call niches. Within these niches, the cells are talking to each other, influencing their neighbour’s movements and maturity to build tissue-level structures such as blood vessels or functional muscle.
Epicardium
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Endocardium
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Conductive and pacemaker system
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Immune cells in the heart
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Epicardium / Endocardium / Conductive and pacemaker system / Immune cells in the heart /
How we piece the heart together
Our expert researchers use many complementary techniques and methods to solve the mysteries of cardiac development. From animal models and experiments to machine learning and big data, the CellTalk-HHD consortium coordinates its approach across the institutes involved to triangulate on the communication taking place within the growing tissue.
Stem Cells
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Human Multiomics
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Zebrafish
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Mice
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Stem Cells / Human Multiomics / Zebrafish / Mice /
Latest News
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Research
The CellTalk-HHD consortium believes that science progresses rapidly through access to data. The fully annotated heart development datasets generated through research are freely available.
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Our People
Our team meets twice a year. Our next get-together will be May 2025.
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Organisations
With leading experts in cardiac development spread throughout the United Kingdom, this level of research is only possible through cross-institute collaboration.