Dr Richard Davis

Richard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy & Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) where he leads a research team that uses human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to study cardiac development and genetic cardiac diseases. He obtained a PhD from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) during which he developed strategies to perform targeted genetic modification in hPSCs, as well as robust differentiation protocols towards mesodermal cell types. This was followed by postdoctoral training in the group of Professor Christine Mummery at the LUMC where he applied these techniques to hPSC-derived cardiac models.
The main focus of Richard’s work is to use hPSCs to model cardiovascular diseases for potential clinical applications, particularly in terms of risk stratification, classification of variants and drug sensitivities. This is achieved by using and developing cutting-edge gene editing technologies to generate panels of isogenic hPSC lines for cardiac diseases, and subsequently high-throughput strategies to differentiate and functionally investigate the pathogenicity of these individual genetic variants. The work in Richard’s group is supported by multiple European and Dutch grants, including an ERC Starter’s Grant and a NWO VIDI fellowship.