Dr Tim Byatt

Tim Byatt is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Simões Group, specializing in developmental biology. He completed his PhD at the University of Bristol in 2024, where he focused on a cross-kingdom comparison to identify novel wound response proteins through parallel studies in zebrafish and Arabidopsis.

After completing his PhD, he joined the Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine (IDRM) at the University of Oxford to study heart development. His current research integrates in vitro and in vivo approaches to uncover the mechanisms driving cardiogenesis, with a focus on cellular niches and cell-cell communication within the developing heart.

His in vitro work utilizes human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived models, including 2D cellular systems and 3D cardiac organoids. In parallel, he leverages zebrafish as an in vivo model to identify and validate evolutionarily conserved niches and regulatory signals from cross-species studies of cardiogenesis. Using multiomic approaches, this research identifies key similarities and differences between in vitro and in vivo models, as well as compared to the human scenario, unravelling how accurately these models reflect the complexity of human heart development.

By combining these approaches, he seeks to deepen our understanding of the molecular interactions and cellular dynamics underpinning heart development, contributing to advancements in developmental biology and regenerative medicine.

Areas of Focus

Simões Lab
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