Dr. Stephanie Protze, PhD, is a cardiovascular stem cell scientist and holds the McEwen Stem Cell Institute Chair in Cardiac Regenerative Medicine. Her research program applies cutting-edge stem cell biology, molecular biology, and electrophysiology to study the development and diseases of the human heart with a special focus on the cardiac conduction system that regulates the heart rhythm. Dr. Protze’s team drives to pursue translational research and aims to develop cell therapies using stem-cell derived biological pacemakers as novel treatments for patients with heart rhythm disorders.

Dr. Protze received her PhD in Cell Biology and Biomedicine from the International Max Planck Research School at the University of Dresden, Germany. For her postdoctoral fellowship, she moved to Toronto, Canada to join Dr. Gordon Keller’s laboratory, where she specialized in stem cell research. In 2018, Dr. Protze was appointed as a Principal Investigator at the McEwen Stem Cell Institute at the University Health Network and Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto.

Her research has been published in leading journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Cell, and Cell Stem Cell. She has attracted funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Stem Cell Network, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, as well as industry partners to support her research program.