Three decades of Ca2+ sparks and Ca2+ waves in cardiac muscle

The symposium will provide a review of the new insights into cardiac cell function provided by the Ca²⁺ sparks since their discovery 30 years ago. Mark Cannell was part of the original team who reported their existence and his subsequent research has lead the thinking around the sub-cellular events that underlie a Ca²⁺ spark, the size of the cluster of ryanodine receptors and their role in normal and abnormal excitation-contraction coupling, Alex Zima’s pioneering work showed the impact of Ca²⁺ sparks and E-C coupling on intraSR Ca²⁺. Finally, John Bridge's contribution has been to examine how Ca sparks are altered in disease states. Niall MacQuaide's novel analysis techniques have identified new classes of Ca sparks and Bill Louch has examined Ca sparks and waves in disease models and novel transgenic models of disease.