Postdoctoral Fellow
York University, Canada
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
My name is Dr. Robert Lakin (PhD) and I am a postdoctoral fellow at York University. Having completed my Master's of Exercise Sciences at the University of Toronto looking at the post-exertional blood pressure responses to swim and cycling exercise in triathletes and recreational athletes (Supervisor: Dr. Jack Goodman), I transitioned from human to basic science work for my Doctoral degree. In my PhD, I studied the mechanistic basis of exhaustive endurance exercise on right ventricular arrhythmogenic remodeling, which complemented the ongoing clinical work of Dr. Jack Goodman. It is from this work that I had the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Peter H Backx, who would recruit me to do my postdoctoral (PDF) fellowship working alongside him at York University. In my postdoctoral work, I have focused on the mechanistic basis of atrial fibrillation (AF) using mouse models of volume overload, namely intense exercise and aortic regurgitation (AR), with a focus on the role of the mechanosensitive and pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF). This work is funded by a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Publications:
1. 1. Teng ACT, Lakin R, Gu L, Di Paola M, Williams ZJ, Au A, Chen W, Callaghan NI, Zadeh FH, Zhou Y-Q, Fatah M, Chatterjee D, Jourdan LJ, Liu J, Simmons CA, Kislinger T, Yip CM, Backx PH, Gourdie RG, Hamilton RM, Gramolini AO. Tmem65 is critical for the structure and function of the intercalated discs in mouse hearts. Nat Commun (2022)
2. Lakin R, Debi R, Yang S, Polidovitch N, Goodman JM, Backx PH. Differential negative effects of acute exhaustive swim exercise on the right ventricle is associated with disproportionate hemodynamic loading. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2021 Jan 8.
3. Lakin R et. al. Apelin increases atrial conduction velocity, refractoriness and prevents inducibility of atrial fibrillation. JCI Insight. 2020 Sep 3;5(17):126525.