Leslie Tung is a professor of biomedical engineering, director of the Cardiac Bioelectric Systems Laboratory, and director of ASPIRE.
His lab’s research involves the study of functional properties of engineered networks of living cardiac cells at varying structural levels that include single cells, cell strands, 2D sheets, and 3D tissue. The culture neonatal rat ventricular cells, human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, and human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes as multicellular networks to investigate fundamental properties of action potential propagation and arrhythmias. The use of voltage-sensitive dyes and optical mapping allows us to follow the temporal and spatial patterns of electrical activity.
Tung earned his BS and MS in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972, where he also completed his PhD in electrical engineering and computer science in 1978.