Aitor Aguirre, Ph.D.

Aitor Aguirre, Ph.D. graduated in 2003 with a B.S. in Biology, followed by a M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2006, from the University of the Basque Country, Spain. In 2010 he obtained his Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia were he was working with stem cells and vascular tissue engineering. In 2011 Aitor joined Belmonte Lab at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies to clarify the role of ncRNAs in heart development and cardiac regeneration. He also participated extensively in developing new methods to take advantage of induced pluripotent stem cells technologies for cardiovascular research. Aitor is currently working on the genetics and phenomics of human cardiovascular disease in the Frazer Lab. His aim is to characterize the phenotypic and pharmacogenomic profiles of a large cohort of human genetic variants by using high-throughput assays in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. The information obtained will be valuable for personalized medicine applications and the identify new agents and rsik factors causing cardiovascular disease.