Ben Prosser, Assistant Professor of Physiology and CEMB faculty researcher and his colleague, Ken Margulies recently reported in Nature Medicine, promising work into restoring elasticity to previously ‘damaged’ and stiff cardiac muscle cells.  The work focuses on the microtubules within a single cardiac cell. Diseased cells fill up with greater numbers of these filaments increasing cell stiffness and causing cells to work harder. This may, in turn, reduce the amount of blood the heart can pump.  Working with individual cells, the team hopes this will inform future research in patients suffering from heart failure.  Locally, this research was recently featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer  (July 22, 2018).