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Heather Duffy Laboratory

Heather Duffy, PhD
Assistant Professor in Medicine
CardioVascular Institute
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
3 Blackfan Circle, E/CLS #913
Boston MA 02115

Office: 617-735-4250
Fax: 617-735-4207
E-mail: hduffy@bidmc.harvard.edu

Education, Training and Appointments

Dr. Duffy received her PhD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2001 working on gap junction regulation by protein-protein interactions. Following a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr .David Spray, Dr. Duffy moved to Columbia University Department of Pharmacology to work on animal models of myocardial infarction. Dr. Duffy joined the BIDMC faculty in July of 2008.

Research Interests

Dr. Duffy's laboratory studies gap junctions and cell-cell communication in healthy and ischemic myocardium. Gap junctions are made of connexin proteins which interact to form a direct cytoplasmic conduit between cells. Gap junctions are lost following ischemic events in the heart an event that leads to cardiac arrhythmias. Dr. Duffy's laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms by which gap junctions are lost from ischemic myocardium and how this loss leads to cardiac arrhythmias.

Highlighted Recent Publications

• Cabo C, Yao J, Boyden PA, Chen S, Hussain W, Duffy HS, Ciaccio EJ, Peters NS, Wit AL. Heterogeneous gap junction structural and functional remodeling influences conduction in central common pathway of reentrant circuits of the epicardial border zone of the healing canine infarct. Cardiovasc. Res. 2006; 72(2):241-249.
  
  
• Duffy HS, Iacobas I, Hotchkiss K, Hirst-Jensen BJ, Bosco A, Dandachi N, Dermietzel R, Sorgen PL, Spray DC. The gap junction protein Connexin32 interacts with the SH3/Hook Domain of Discs Large Homolog 1. J. Biol. Chem. 2007; 282(13):9789-9796.
  
  
• Ozgen N, Dun W, Sosunov EA, Anyukhovsky EP, Hirose M, Duffy HS, Boyden PA, Rosen MR. Early electrical remodeling in rabbit pulmonary vein cells is induced by increased trafficking of intracellular SK2 channels to membrane sites. Cardiovasc. Res. 2007; 75(4) 758-769.
  
  
• Duffy HS, Wit AL. Is there a role for remodeled connexins in AF? No simple answers. J. Mol Cell Cardiol. 2008; 44(1):4-13.
  
  
• Duffy, HS. Cardiac Connections: The antiarrhythmic solution? New Engl J. Med 2008; 358(13):1397.