Our research focuses on cellular and molecular factors involved in the control of cardiac excitation-contraction coupling, from the electrical activation via ion channels to the Ca transients that drive cardiac contraction and relaxation in health and disease. Cellular calcium regulates contraction and is in a dynamic, yet delicate balance in cardiac muscle cells. We use multiple state-of-the-art techniques such as molecular biology, genetic engineering, high resolution fluorescence imaging, patch-clamp electrophysiology, and animal models of diseases (heart failure, diabetes, and arrhythmia) to understand how normal and diseased heart cells function from the molecular detail to the whole animal level.