Heart disease is among the leading causes of death for adults, and congenital heart defects are the most common birth defects in children. The goal of our research is to define the molecular and cellular mechanisms of heart development and regeneration in zebrafish and use them as a blueprint to design potential therapeutic approaches to enhance heart repair in human patients. We use genetic, genomic, and cellular approaches to dissect the processes of heart development and regeneration and identify promising growth factors, genes, and cell types important for these processes. We aim to determine how these candidate genes and factors can be utilized to facilitate growth factor and stem cell-based therapies. We will investigate the basis of developmental defects as an underlying risk in the decreased regenerative capacity of the heart or increased risk of adult heart diseases.