Dr Gonzalo del Monte-Nieto received his PhD in 2011 from the Autonoma University of Madrid (Spain), training in molecular and developmental biology supervised by Prof José Luis de la Pompa and on 3D image analysis by Prof Antoon Moorman (the Netherlands). During this time, he developed a protocol for monitoring the Notch1 activity during development that not only helped to describe for the first time the cells and tissues where the Notch pathway is active in the developing embryo and adult tissues, but also to decode complex developmental processes such as cardiac ventricular trabeculation, valvulogenesis and somitogenesis. Furthermore, his PhD work determined for the first time the role of the Notch pathway during epicardium and coronary artery formation. In 2011, he joined Prof Richard Harvey laboratory at Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (Sydney). His research focus lays in the study of the molecular mechanisms and developmental processes orchestrating heart development and the translation of this knowledge into congenital heart disease and cardiac regeneration. On this regard, his recent research has described a new revolutionary model for cardiac chamber development with special focus in trabeculation by integrating the cellular and extracellular components of the heart with important implications for better understanding congenital and adult heart disease.

• To study the molecular mechanisms and developmental processes controlling heart development.
• To understand the molecular and cellular etiology of Congenital Heart Disease.
• To study ECM composition/patterning during heart development, adulthood and disease/injury models.
• To develop computational models for the different developmental processes in the heart.
• To apply the knowledge generated from developmental biology to improve heart regeneration, organ-on-a-chip technologies and tissue engineering.