Welcome!

I’m Grace Blair, a third year PhD Student studying cardiac electrophysiology in the Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health program at Virginia Tech. Say that 5 times fast.

My focus is on non-gap junctional modes of conduction between cardiomyocytes, with a particular emphasis on ephaptic coupling. I’ve explained that in a bit more detail on my research page, but here’s the teaser: we’re finding ways to use salt water to treat lethal cardiac arrhythmias. Yep.

I mean, don’t hold your breath, I work in a basic science lab. But it’s still going to be a major innovation…someday.

Post graduation, I intend on continuing to study electrophysiology, but am leaning towards something even more obscure than ephaptic coupling… perhaps the field of plant electrophysiology? A post soon to come on this as well.

I’m also a human outside of lab, and am often found trying to learn new skills with varying degrees of success. Lately

these include rollerskiing, slacklining, and paragliding. I also run and bike a lot (much higher degrees of success here).

But oftentimes I am still my PhD student self outside of lab as well, and am just doing the studying/writing thing, albeit hindered by kitties.