Education

• Bioengineering, University of Washington
• Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota
• Physics, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse

Previous appointments

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Bioengineering, Univeristy of California San Diego

Research Statement

The Powers Lab is focused on discovering and understanding mechanisms that underlie various forms of heart disease and heart failure. A common precursor to heart failure is an architectural remodeling of the cells and tissue that comprise the heart, but the subcellular biological processes that drive pathological cardiac remodeling are not currently understood. However, like most cells, the morphology and functionality of heart cells depend on the mechanical properties of the microenvironments both inside and outside of the cells. As such, the Powers Lab is particularly interested in multiscale mechanical signal transmission and transduction that regulates cardiac morphology and contractility, and how these signals are affected by disease. To investigate this, we use stem cell-derived heart cells and engineered rodent models to recapitulate aspects of human cardiac pathologies in the lab, and we employ a combination of in-vitro biomechanical assays, quantitative imaging, genetic analyses, and theoretical computational models. Our long-term goal is to leverage our knowledge of cardiac mechanobiology, biomechanics, and pathology to develop new therapies that can prevent and/or reverse pathological remodeling in patients with heart disease.

Select publications

1. Powers JD, Kirkland NJ, Liu C, Razu SS, Fang X, Engler AJ, Chen J, & McCulloch AD. (2022). Subcellular remodeling in filamin C deficient mouse hearts impairs myocyte tension development during progression of dilated cardiomyopathy. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 23(2), 871. DOI: 10.3390/ijms23020871.
2. Powers JD & McCulloch AD. (2022). Biomechanical signals regulating the structure of the heart. Current Opinion in Physiology. 25, 100482. DOI: 10.1016/j.cophys.2021.100482.
3. Powers JD*, Malingen SA*, Regnier M, & Daniel TL. (2021). The sliding filament theory since Andrew Huxley: Multiscale and multidisciplinary muscle research. Annual Review of Biophysics. 50:373–400 *contributed equally. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biophys-110320-062613.
4. Powers JD, Kooiker KB, Mason AB, Teitgen AE, Flint GV, Tardiff JC, Schwartz SD, McCulloch AD, Regnier M, Davis J, & Moussavi-Harami F. (2020). Modulating the tension-time integral of the cardiac twitch prevents dilated cardiomyopathy in murine hearts. JCI: Insight. 5(20):e142446. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.142446.
5. Powers JD*, Yuan C-C*, McCabe KJ, Murray JD, Childers MC, Flint G, Moussavi-Harami F, Mohran S, Castillo R, Zuzek C, Ma W, Daggett V, McCulloch AD, Irving TC, & Regnier M. (2019). Cardiac myosin activation with 2-deoxy-ATP via increased electrostatic interactions with actin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116:11502–11507. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1905028116.

Honors & awards

• Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship (NIH F32)
• Pathway to Independence Award (NIH K99/R00)

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