Customer Spotlight

Identifying Therapeutic Targets for Congenital Disorders with Revolve

Understanding Congenital Disease for New Therapy Developments

At Sanford Burnham Prebys, The Ranade Lab investigates how cellular signaling shapes cell differentiation during cardiac and craniofacial development.

Led by Sanjeev Ranade, assistant professor at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute, the team studies how cardiopharyngeal neural crest cells communicate with neighboring progenitor cells. This drives signaling interactions essential for coordinated development of the heart and craniofacial structures. Disruption of this crosstalk can lead to congenital defects seen in complex syndromic disorders, such as Down syndrome.

To support this work, the lab uses the Revolve microscope for high-quality imaging and recording of cell cultures and organoids.

Visualizing Cellular Signals in the Heart

Using human pluripotent stem cells and complementary mouse models, the lab studies the mechanisms that guide normal heart formation and decipher the transcriptional and signaling defects that disrupt heart development. These disorders are called congenital heart defects and are the most common form of birth defects.

Swipe through to see 2D slices of stained cardiac organoids captured by the Ranade Lab using Revolve.

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How the Lab Uses Revolve

Monitoring Cardiac Organoid Growth and 3D Development

Monitors cardiac organoids derived from human iPSCs and tracks their development in 3D over time using the Revolve microscope.

Quick assessment of Cell Culture Health

Allows quick cellular morphology evaluations at multiple time points and supports post-fixation immunostaining to visualize key markers, ensuring reliable assessments of culture health and identity.

Rapid video capture and collaborative sharing

iPad interface enables fast video capture, from short clips to long time-course videos, with easy sharing to the lab and collaborators.

Fluorescent visualization of Cardiomyocyte Differentiation

When working with iPSC lines engineered to express a cardiomyocyte-specific GFP reporter, the Revolve enables easy visualization of differentiation and follows cell morphology changes.

The Ranade Lab’s Experience

“We love the Revolve microscope for its simplicity, versatility and economy of space. When I first started my lab in 2024, I needed a microscope that could perform multiple functions with the highest quality of image outputs for a reasonable price – the Revolve was the perfect fit.”

– Sanjeev Ranade

Video showing GFP-labeled cardiomyocytes beating, captured by the lab on the right.

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